Liability Insurance Most Critical Concern in NAHB Survey Results from NAHB’s most recently conducted Critical Issues Survey (information on this link is available to NAHB members only) show that the cost and availability of general liability insurance topped builder concerns between July 2003 and June 2004.  On a scale of one to five, where one equals not at all critical and five equals very critical, general liability insurance cost scored 4.49 and availability scored 4.26. These results parallel results from the past three survey periods, where general liability insurance cost and availability also ranked as the top two most pressing issues for the home building industry. The survey, which asked executive officers or their designees to rank 75 issues according to how important or critical they are to their members, had a response rate of more than 20%. Rounding out the top five issues were lumber price and supply at 4.25, development approval process at 4.22 and development costs at 4.18. Notably absent from the top 10 list of issues was mold, which peaked at fourth during the 2002-2003 survey period. The issue dropped from 11th during last year's survey period to 29th this year. Labor availability — which was ranked as one of the industry’s most critical issues for several years — dropped to 11th place during 2002-2003 and 14th during this survey period. Critical Issues Survey results are used to help guide NAHB's work. To have complete survey results e-mailed to you, e-mail Sam Leyvas in NAHB's State & Local Government Affairs Department, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8326. | 
