You bet it is and more. 

All of you are right.  There are several reasons why Texas gets the most attention.  Jane Doe is correct, the first reason is that HOBB is headquartered in Texas and it was the first state ever to introduce the Home Lemon Law, which ganed national news attention, and it is the state that has been the most politically active ever since.

The fact is that we owe it all to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the financially and politically powerful, overconfident and unregulated Texas Homebuilding Industry that has put Texas in the headlines, and made it the testing grounds for its outrageous legislation that regulates homebuyers.  Since they have been so successful in Texas the NAHB has successfully worked for passage of first-step similar legislation in 29 other states.

No state wants the dubious distinction of being the state with the most shoddy homebuilding in the nation.  The fact is unless homeowners in other states become more politically involved it will be too late and NAHB and the mega builders will successfully control other state playgrounds for their devious work.

Just look at the 29 states that NAHB has passed the Builders-Right-to-Repair bill that have sailed through the legislature virtually unopposed.  As goes Texas so goes the rest of the nation.   Remember it is undisputed, it all began in Texas.
 
This years Texas Legislative session just may be ground zero for debate and recognition of the huge mistakes made because of big builders (Bob Perry) money influence (and David Weekley). 

More than anytime, there must be unity among consumer groups and more attention paid to what is going on in Texas.

As for mortgage fraud HOBB has been screaming about builder predatory lending practices. It was a key fodus of our work during the HUD, FHA, VA and FTC investigations that began in 2001, which resulted in token fines leved on KB Home and the investigations that continue today. See: http://www.hobb.org/hobbv1/kaufman/gramm.jpg

Again, I don’t think anyone wants the bragging rights to the state that has the most builder corruption but the recent news media attention given to all states is refreshing.  I am sure most do not know that by 1997 the percentage of foreclosures nationwide were more than double and by the of the next year had tripled any other time in history. 

Very little attention was given to the problem because of the new building boom that was the major economic indicator holding up the economy and at the same time multiplying the mortgage fraud business of new homebuilders. Predatory mortgages were the key ingrediant to the new homebuilding scheme of booming business. If they could push creative/deceptive mortgage fraud financing on families the business could continue at alarming rates. 

No one state is immune to the mortgage fraud epidemic and the credit for the exposure of the extent of fraud needs to go to the first class news reporting that is being done in major newspapers in a number of states.

A history lesson on the birth of  Builder Mortgage Fraud
The groundwork for Mortgage Fraud was laid in 1993 when then secretary of HUD, Henry Cisneros gave the new homebuilding industry every deregulation device they needed.  Secretary Cisneros began the deregulation of HUD be proclaiming that HUD would no longer approve subdivisions and that builder-owned mortgage companies would approve all FHA federally insured loans.  As if that wasn’t enough, Secretary Cisneros also gave approval to allow lenders to hire their own appraisers and pay them directly. See: HUD’s Broken System - http://www.hobb.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=419&Itemid=228

The fact is unless dedicated homeowners unite in other states and become more politically involved NAHB and the mega builders will find other playgrounds for their devious work.

Do to years of consumer dedication and work, Texas is leading the way that brings hope and opportunity that can benefit all.  The Texas legislature begins in a couple of weeks and the issues of bad building, massive builder mortgage fraud, epidemic foreclosures, abusive binding arbitration clauses and a failed state ‘builder-protection-agency’ (TRCC) will be priority issues this session.  Two bills have already been filed even before the session begins.

Debating the problems is not a cure but rather unity.  Today’s opportunity to unit and actively participate in the legislative process by sponsoring bills that will protect homebuyers will bring change.   No matter the state, consumers will be inspired by what is happening in Texas. Whether living in Texas or any other state you’re participation is important and will give invaluable experience to tackle the same issues that are destroying homeownership in your state.

Janet, I would not say that builders right to repair legislation has been unopposed. I would say that the opposition has been kept out of the press, and ignored by the politicians, because of builder influence.  I suspect many corporate-pushed laws are kept similarly in the dark or promoted as good things when they are not.  Considering how much time it takes to investigate all the laws being promoted every session, and how much of the info is corporate spin anyway, it's no wonder most citizens have no clue what's going on, much less if they support or oppose it.  I believe if people knew they would oppose it. 

OTOH, there are a lot of lazy consumers who never think these problems will ever touch their lives, so they look away even when they have the chance to learn or speak up.

Where are the building inspectors in Texas, is inspection so new in Texas that they haven't had time to find and train good inspectors? 

This was posted on the ICC Bulletin Board a year ago:

Quote
We just moved from California, where there are more building codes than people, to Texas where you can apparantely build a home with a license and $150 and you do not have to meet any requirements whatsoever beyond that.*


* http://www.iccsafe.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=001219#000010

HOBB being based in Texas does give a lot of focus to issues there. There’s no way to really know who has the worst state, and it really shouldn’t matter. NAHB unifies any proven builder interest policies and helps apply them nationwide with tried and tested manipulation tactics, wherever they may come from.

The successes of the low life political tactics of Carl Rove and figurehead candidate Bush helped spread some successful bad Texas legislation to the rest of the country. Our own homebuilder here (NVR’s Dwight Schar) actively pursued Bush for the office of White House prior to the 2000 election, and played a role in helping convince him to run for office, including later heavily providing financing to his campaign.

Clearly builders wanted their business friendly candidates in office, as massive special interest cash was poured in. I think supporters saw the gullibility of young Bush, who has probably never dealt with deep philosophical or moral issues in his sheltered life. All Bush listens too are his handful of advisors, who I think have A-morale agendas, with no barriers on what they will do or say to get things their way. I doubt he expresses any opinions, but rather reflects opinions he’s been taught behind the scenes.

There are plenty of others with home defects that are not in Texas. I know a good number of people who are very unhappy with their builder, many with severe construction defects. None of them want to post it anywhere online, nor do they have any desire to be pro-active in consumer rights reforms. They just want recovery, and to move on. We’re not likely seeing .01% of the number of actual problems out there. The building industry has engineered itself to make certain there are very few public records to build any stats that definitively show how badly we need reform. The extreme measures they’ve taken in protecting themselves show there is a big problem being buried nationwide.