Home builders: We’re big part of metro Atlanta economy

With all the bad housing news out there, who can blame the home builders for feeling unappreciated?

To remind people how important home building is to the metro Atlanta economy, the National Association of Home Builders just released a report with some eye-popping numbers about residential construction’s ripple effect.

How about these? In a year’s time, building 13,000 homes in nine metro counties supports nearly 35,000 jobs in 28 counties, and $2.5 billion in income is produced.

“Even in its weakened state housing still has a lot of impact,” NAHB economist Elliot Eisenberg said in an interview.

Metro Atlanta, like other parts of the country, is seeing a home-construction slump. Starts are down 54 percent year over year, said Eugene James, Atlanta division director of the research company Metrostudy.

Atlanta’s market “is in the process of correcting itself,” James said.

While that’s going on, the NAHB is putting out numbers touting the housing industry’s benefits to the economy.

One point the trade group wants to make is that it disputes the notion that housing doesn’t generate enough taxes to cover the cost of services residents use. Governments routinely overestimate how many children will live in new homes when they figure those costs, Eisenberg said.

So here’s another big NAHB number: Those 13,000 single-family homes generate $114 million in local taxes and fees on a recurring basis.

“Housing is paying for itself relatively quickly,” Eisenberg argued.

If that’s the case, impact fees — charges governments impose to support new construction — are unnecessary and only add to the cost of a house, according to the home builders .

“If you impose fees on home building,” Eisenberg said, “you’re doing a lot of destructive things to the economy.”