Photo courtesy of T&M Building Co.
Greg Ugalde
Chairman, National Association of Homebuilders
Age: 58
Industry experience: 25 years
A 25-year homebuilder and outspoken advocate on housing policies, Greg Ugalde is taking a leadership role on the national stage. The president of Torrington-based T&M Building Co., which has completed more than 4,000 homes in Connecticut since 1962, Ugalde is the 2019 chairman of the National Association of Home Builders. Ugalde and other members of the association’s leadership recently met in Washington, D.C. with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to discuss barriers to housing production and homeownership. As he waited to board his return flight to Connecticut, Ugalde spoke with The Commercial Record about the group’s top priorities for 2019 and the state of the Connecticut housing market.
Q: Did your family have a background in the building trades?
A: I took a little different path. I went to law school and I went to [former Gov.] Abe Ribicoff’s firm in Hartford. We were a large firm and I got put in real estate, where I was able to deal with clients from day one. I did commercial and residential and many of my clients were big developers, so I really got into that. My current partner, [T&M CEO] Steve Tempkin, his dad died and Steve and I joined forces. We’ve been partners since 1994.
Q: What was your first project as a team?
A: Settlers Ridge in Milford. We were sitting in a restaurant and drew the plans for the community on a napkin, and I still have that napkin. It ended up with 110 homes. We traded lots with a nearby church. We built them a parsonage and they gave us land to put in a cul-de-sac, so we ended up with 110 homes.
Q: What’s on your plate as far as critical issues that NAHB is fighting for in 2019?
A: My theme for the year is housing affordability. We still have unbelievable pressures on the price of housing and rental units and even remodeling markets. When you look at land costs, both purchasing and then financing our acquisition and development financing, pulling that piece of the pie is extremely expensive. One of the ways [to offset that] is by increasing density and allowing product to reach the market.
At the beginning of 2017, we had a 63 percent lumber price increase. We’re building it into contracts, so we have to cover those costs. We’re wrestling the prices back in line, but it’s a significant increase. We have to ease regulations to keep costs down. We have workforce development efforts going on around the country. We find that most of our local and state associations are working with the school systems and veterans. They’re also working with the penitentiaries, so we can get day release programs where we can get labor into markets where it’s difficult. The fourth issue is local regulations. That is just so critical. With home rule in so many places, you have to follow those requirements and many of them are costly, whether it’s building codes or regulations or the statutory framework.
And in Connecticut, where things aren’t robust at all, we still have labor issues. The family businesses no longer have their kids come in, many of our subcontractors are getting retrained and they are choosing to relocate geographically or within their professions. Everyone has labor and workforce issues.
The last one is the financing end. We not only have to worry about financing developing, but it’s our end loan packages and that’s why we were talking to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau yesterday. We have to make sure there are affordable products and that our customers have confidence if they apply and start the process of home ownership, they’re confident the system is working. Credit standards and interest rates are cooperative now. It looks like we got some good news that they’ll stay that way for a while.
Q: How effective is Connecticut’s affordable housing zoning law at generating higher-density housing production in communities with restrictive zoning?
A: It is beneficial because a lot of times it allows us to at least bring up the topic: “Look, if you’re not going to cooperate or just say, ‘No development here,’ you’re going to force us to put together an 8-30g application.” Now, as a practical matter, it’s not that easy to do, especially depending on the size of the proposal. We would like to get overlay zones that both the municipalities and developers agree on as the way to increase housing. It’s all about increasing the density in those areas. We do have other tools beyond what’s considered by many to be a hammer in the 8-30g process.
Q: What’s the minimum number of lots needed to build a subdivision that’s financially feasible these days?
A: That has really been a change and we’ve all had to adapt. When we first started, we needed to get at least 100, or at least 75, because we would take a site supervisor and put them at each site individually. As time has gone on, we can actually look at anything from 20 to 30 homes and then we look for a few in a geographical area where we can use sales and construction teams in the same way with our site supervisor. We even look at some smaller deals, where we buy a piece that we can split up into two or three units, if we know the town, the officials and inspectors.
Q: What’s the sweet spot in pricing for new construction?
A: I would use our South Windsor Woods project as a great example. It is our most successful community and largest. We are opening at just below $200,000 [for townhomes]. It’s the number that can get people in the door. For single-family, we can approach $500,000 to $600,000, depending on options.
Uglade’s Five Favorite Fictional Heroes:
- Mitch Rapp, created by Vince Flynn
- Jack Reacher, created by Lee Child
- Jack Ryan, created by Tom Clancy
- Dirk Pitt, created by Clive Cussler
- Oliver Stone and the Camel Club, created by David Baldacci
