Home Builders’ Convention to Attract 60,000

Fresh from racking up a better-than-average year for new-housing construction, more than 60,000 of the nation’s builders are expected to attend the 43rd annual convention and exposition of the National Assn. of Home Builders opening Friday in Dallas.

The annual meeting of the 145,000-member trade group--billed as the largest ever--will showcase more than 1,000 product and service exhibits and will have 175 educational sessions before it winds up Jan. 19.

Once again, the convention’s showcase house--the fourth edition of the New American Home--was designed by Santa Barbara-based Berkus Group Architects.

Located on a California-sized, 5,500-square-foot lot, the 3,600-square-foot, two-bedroom house was built by Williams Fine Homes of Dallas to appeal to the upscale “empty-nester” couple, according to a spokesman for Builder magazine, the association’s official magazine and co-sponsor of the idea house with the National Council of the Housing Industry.

Speakers from Congress and elsewhere will address a variety of topics ranging from the trade and budget deficit to immigration to housing priorities. Not deterred by last year’s exhaustive coverage of proposed tax law changes, one panel will even deal with the topic: “Tax Reform--Is it Over?”

Executives of the association, the Federal National Mortgage Assn., Government National Mortgage Assn., Mortgage Bankers Assn., the U.S. League of Savings Institutions and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. will discuss the mortgage market outlook for 1987.