NAHB Applauds HUD and USDA Action to Roll Back Costly Energy Mandate

Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and remodeler from Worthington, Ohio, issued the following statement after the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcement today to rescind the rule that would impose the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and ASHRAE 90.1-2019 as the minimum energy-efficiency standards for certain single-family and multifamily housing programs:

"NAHB commends HUD and USDA for taking decisive action to roll back these overly burdensome energy mandates, which threatened to deepen the nation's housing affordability crisis. Compliance with the rule would have placed significant new cost pressures on home builders and multifamily developers, making it harder to deliver the affordable, attainable communities that are urgently needed. Research shows that adopting these standards could have added between $9,600 and $21,400 to the price of a new home depending on the climate zone. By repealing this onerous mandate, the Trump administration is making it easier for builders to construct more housing supply at an attainable price for Americans."