The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and has joined 15 state attorneys general in a lawsuit stop to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) from adopting 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.
“Compliance with the 2021 IECC can add more than $22,000 to the price of a new home, but in practice, home builders have estimated increased costs of up to $31,000,” said NAHB Chairman Carl Harris, a custom home builder from Wichita, Kansas. “Along with 15 state attorneys general, NAHB is the only private entity in this lawsuit seeking to halt HUD and USDA from adopting the 2021 IECC because home builders can document how this egregious regulation will needlessly raise housing costs and hurt the nation’s most vulnerable home buyers and renters. This ill-conceived policy will act as a deterrent to new construction at a time when the nation desperately needs to boost its housing supply to lower shelter inflation costs. It is also in direct conflict with the current energy codes in the majority of jurisdictions around the country.”
Harris added that the lawsuit, which was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, “seeks to show that granting HUD and USDA authority to insure mortgages for new single-family homes and apartments only if they are built to the 2021 IECC or ASHRAE 90.1-2019 was done in an unconstitutional manner.”
HUD and USDA did not publicly comment on the litigation. The incoming Trump administration has not stated whether it would drop this policy once new leadership is installed at HUD and USDA.
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