A prominent U.S. Housing leader has issued a grave caution regarding the economy, strongly condemning consumer mindsets and governmental actions that he believes jeopardize affordability and the expansion of home construction. Allan Merrill, the chief executive of Beazer Homes, a homebuilder valued at $650 million, drew a clear connection between the nation's financial practices and the difficulties encountered by those seeking to buy homes, stating, “We want things that we don’t want to pay for” as a nation.
TL;DR
- Allan Merrill criticizes consumer mindsets and government actions for jeopardizing housing affordability and construction.
- Merrill highlights excessive government fees and permitting costs as major hurdles for new home construction.
- He advocates for increased training and recruitment in skilled trades to address labor shortages.
- Merrill believes the housing market faces a multi-year period to regain normalized affordability.
During a discussion at ResiDay, a conference for residential real estate organized by ResiClub, Merrill spoke with the publication's editor, Lance Lambert, regarding what he perceives as a pervasive timidity in American economic actions. Concurrently, he cautioned that the United States' disregard for skilled manual labor professions presents a considerable threat to both the economy and the construction industry. Given the decrease in labor availability due to immigration changes and the apprehension among entry-level tradespeople facing reduced new home construction, he advocated for increased training and recruitment efforts driven by the industry.
Mounting affordability crisis
Merrill candidly characterized the 2025 housing market as underperforming and slow, even with robust employment figures and ongoing consumer interest. Builders accumulated stock expecting a brisk spring, but encountered weak sales, especially in key regions like Texas and Florida. Despite advancements in reducing expenses, including addressing mortgage rates, utility bills, and insurance costs, affordability continues to be a significant hurdle for most purchasers. Merrill highlighted his company's initiatives to reduce monthly expenses for buyers by $300 to $700 through cost optimization, expressing his belief that the market must “grind back … I think it’s a multi-year period of sort of trying to get back to a more normalized affordability environment.”
Merrill's most fervent statements focused on fees and permitting expenses mandated by the government, particularly in states such as California, where pre-construction outlays can amount to $140,000 per residence. He characterized this as a risky undertaking, drawing a parallel to the country's escalating deficits: “We want things that we don’t want to pay for right now, we’re going to let somebody else in the future pay for them. When I look at the fees that builders pay for new construction, it’s very much the same thing.” Merrill contended that local utility and government representatives lacked the fortitude to require existing users to cover infrastructure expenses, instead transferring the obligation to purchasers of new homes—thereby exacerbating the affordability crisis for subsequent generations.
He admitted he might sound “a little curmudgeonly” and that he didn't intend to “malign any particular municipalities,”, so he brought up the instance of obtaining a permit for a recently constructed, standalone residential property in Sacramento. He stated that he incurred $138,000 in permit and fee costs before commencing any building work, “and this is a municipality that complains about affordability in their neighborhood.”. Comparing this approach to the country's financial condition, he remarked, “I think we’ve been irresponsible.”.
“We don’t really have the courage at the utility district level,” Merrill said by way of an example, “to tell sewer rate payers and water rate payers and trash rate payers and park enjoyers: ‘Here’s what that infrastructure costs,’ because they vote.” Instead, he said, the approach is to increase fees on new construction, affecting companies like Merrill’s own that are trying to build new homes. The answer for that is clear, he said: “Lots don’t vote.”
The art history major versus the HVAC technician
In wide-ranging remarks, Merrill also discussed trends in the American economy that are hurting housing affordability, which in turn hurts his business and the average American homebuyer, who just hit 40 years old for the first time in history. Beazer is facing “real challenges” sourcing the talent to build more homes. Merrill said he thinks of the proverbial “young person with an art history degree” who has $150,000 of debt and a $60,000 job when there are better opportunities in the blue-collar trades. “I think about that person who’s got an HVAC business or a plumbing business or a framing business, is making $150,000 and has no debt and is in Hawaii on vacation. I think the trades are a much maligned career path.” Merrill added, “by the way, my kids haven’t followed this advice” to go into those lines of work.
Merrill's comments surface during a nationwide reevaluation, confronting a significant deficit in skilled tradespeople on one side, and escalating expenses and a tarnished image for post-secondary institutions on the other. In comparable statements made in early October, Ford CEO Jim Farley shared a poignant account of his son's open questioning about the necessity of attending college. After working as a mechanic during the summer, Farley's son expressed to him, “Dad, I really like this work. I don’t know why I need to go to college.”
Merrill’s remarks serve as both a critique and a call to action—for policymakers to reconsider strategies that shift the burdens of progress onto future buyers, and for young Americans to reevaluate the value of skilled trades. Without real reform, he warned, America’s housing crisis will deepen, squeezing both builders and buyers in a landscape where “wanting things” without paying the true cost has become the norm—and where the peril of neglecting the blue-collar backbone of the nation may soon come home to roost.