The new president of the politically influential National Association of Home Builders sees a small "window of opportunity" ahead for the 200,000-member organization to make some long-sought after gains.

Bruce Smith, a fourth-generation builder from Walnut Creek whose brother led the NAHB several years ago, admits the opening is "not as wide" as previous opportunities that presented themselves in 1964 when Lyndon Johnson became president and again in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected.

It will last only six-to-nine months, he told a group of housing reporters. But it's still enough time for the business "to put its voice forward and accomplish much good for our industry." Smith, who heads the 65-year-old Smith Quality Homes, said his major goal is to "move back to a more balanced approach" to overseeing building and development.

Noting that federal regulators published more than 4,700 pages of rules last year alone, he said that a "stealth government" unseen by most citizens now runs the nation.

"Great laws covering endangered species and clean water have been rewritten" by regulators to the point that "they don't at all mirror what they were intended to do," he charged.

The NAHB has been buoyed of late by several major court triumphs, including a 5-4 Supreme Court decision last month that held federal agencies cannot restrict land use in any of the nation's eight million isolated wetlands simply because a migrating bird lands on the them.

Isolated wetlands are those not connected to a body of water.

"Courts are now beginning to say regulators have overreached," said Smith. "With these victories, we can now make what were good laws serve all interests." Among other goals, Smith also is hoping to persuade lawmakers to loosen the strings on Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans so that parents and grandparents can dip into their savings to help relatives purchase their first homes without incurring a tax penalty.

"What people cam do for themselves we want to extend to immediate families and close relatives," he said.

Asked about efforts to reign in secondary mortgage market giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the California builder said he had no interest in doing anything that would interrupt the smooth operation of the American housing finance system, which he called the "envy of every other country in the world." Recalling a time when his father couldn't get any mortgage money for his buyers at any price, he said that will never happen again, thanks to the two government-sponsored enterprises. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy loans from local lenders. When a loan is sold, the local lender then has additional cash to make more loans.

Fannie and Freddie, he said, are "well regulated, well funded," he said, "and have passed the stress test far better than any of their challengers could."

For more articles by Lew Sichelman, please press here.

Published: February 26, 2001

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.