Home builder David L. Pressly Jr. was elected as the 2006 president of the 220,000-member National Association of Home Builders during the association’s 62nd annual International Builders’ Show in Orlando, the association announced Friday.
Pressly, president of Pressly Development Co. Inc., has about 25 years of experience in the home-building business. He primarily constructs multifamily and light and commercial projects in the Statesville area near Charlotte. The company owns and manages more than 1,000 apartment units.
“Following a record-breaking year, we believe that a cooling process has begun in single-family and condo markets that will lead to a solid, more sustainable level of housing production and sales,” Pressly said. “This should be another good year for our industry.”
In 2006, he added, NAHB will work to ensure that any tax reform proposals set forth by Washington policymakers protect current tax incentives that will spur home ownership and rental housing initiatives. Home builders will also remain actively engaged in the ongoing debate on Capitol Hill over restructuring the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks, he said.
To help the millions of families who cannot afford to live in the communities where they work, Pressly said that another top priority in 2006 will center on continuing efforts to overcome regulatory barriers that drive up the cost of housing development and homeownership.
A U.S. Army combat engineer from 1969-72, stationed in Fort Campbell, Ky., with the 101st Airborne Division and then in Germany, Pressly worked as a real estate appraiser after his military service.
Long active in home builders associations at the local, state and national levels, Pressly was president of the North Carolina Home Builders Association in 1996 and twice served as president of the Iredell County Home Builders Association, which named him its Builder of the Year in 1991. He was inducted into the North Carolina Housing Hall of Fame in 2004.
At the national level, Pressly has chaired numerous NAHB committees, and he is an NAHB life director and member of the executive board. In 1994, Pressly served as a national representative, and in 1998-99, he was the NAHB national vice president representing Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Actively involved in a wide range of community activities and services, Pressly was elected to the Statesville City Council in 1981 and was the mayor of Statesville in 1983. He served on the board of directors of the Preservation Foundation of North Carolina from 1989-95. In 1979, he was named Realtor of the Year by the Statesville Realtors.
Pressly and his wife, Tammy, have two sons, Lowry and James.
Also elected to top leadership positions during the International Builders’ Show in Orlando: 2006 NAHB first vice president Brian Catalde, from Playa del Rey, Calif.; NAHB vice president/treasurer Sandy Dunn, from Point Pleasant, W.V.; and NAHB vice president/secretary Joe Robson, from Tulsa, Okla.
2005 NAHB President David Wilson, from Ketchum, Idaho, remains on the leadership ladder as the immediate past president, and Jerry Howard of Washington, D.C., serves as NAHB executive vice president.
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