Credit crunch increasingly impacting homebuilders

Not surprisingly, loans for builders to purchase land or fund land development and home construction is also being impacted by the general credit crunch. From a story in the Nation's Building News:

The mortgage credit crunch has spilled over into land acquisition, land development and home construction (AD&C) lending, increasing the challenges faced by builders in the current housing downturn, NAHB told the Congress last week...

Residential AD&C loans are used to purchase land; develop lots; build a project’s infrastructure such as streets, curbs, sidewalks, lighting, and sewer and utility connections; and construct homes.

Presently, funding for viable residential development and construction projects has been severely limited or blocked entirely at federally insured depository institutions, which are the sole source of housing production credit for the small businesses that comprise most of the home building industry, Mitchell told lawmakers.

“The current financing quagmire for home builders vividly illustrates the importance of developing additional sources of AD&C credit,” said Mitchell. “Furthermore, there is no secondary market for residential AD&C loans where community banks and thrifts could turn to help manage their balance sheets and obtain liquidity for additional lending.”

He noted that a viable secondary market for AD&C loans would directly benefit builders and lenders by transferring risk away from lenders; increasing the availability of funds so that projects could be more reliably completed; and mitigating the devastating impact of equity calls on builders, or transfers of partially completed projects to banks under capital and/or regulatory pressure.

To broaden sources of AD&C credit, Mitchell called for:

• Fannie Mae to ramp up activity in its AD&C loan purchase program and for Freddie Mac to create a similar program.
  
  
• Federal Home Loan Banks to improve AD&C liquidity by accepting housing production loans as collateral for the secured advances they make to member institutions.
  
  
• The Federal Housing Administration to help increase competition in the AD&C market by insuring the construction portion of these loans in order to attract new originators such as mortgage banking companies. “As in the case of the end-loan mortgage market, FHA could be a crucial stabilizing force in AD&C lending in turbulent times such as these,” said Mitchell.
  
  
• Wall Street specialists to develop a prototype private security instrument for AD&C loans. In particular, changes to tax provisions relating to Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits and Taxable Mortgage Pools could be helpful in securitizing construction loans.
  
  
• Banking regulators to take a balanced approach when evaluating bank lending, especially in regard to AD&C loans. “Small businesses, including small builders, are vital to the economy, and arbitrary or unreasonable regulatory restrictions would only serve to harm many builders, and potentially, many banks,” said Mitchell. “It would be ironic and tragic to have the positive work of the Fed undone by bank regulators taking a totally different vision and approach when it comes to lending matters.”