A speaker from Columbia asked the Seneca Rotary Club today to keep in mind the important economic benefits that the local and state home building industry makes to the economy. Mark Nix, executive director of the state Home Builders Association, represents three thousand builders working to make a living, in spite of what he called government-required fees and regulations that raise the cost of a new home. Nix pronounced Oconee County builder permits “a little further” behind Greenville and substantially behind building starts on the coast. But, he said, the South Carolina coast has rebounded to 85% normal, before the Great Recession of 2008. In an earlier life, Nix produced the TV series “Firing Line” with William F. Buckley Jr. and directed the 1988 Democratic and Republican Presidential debates.
