The National Association of Home Builders joined 15 state attorneys general—from Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia—to file a complaint in the Eastern District of Texas on Jan. 2, 2025, to stop the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture from adopting new energy efficiency standards for certain single-family homes and multifamily housing programs. In the suit, NAHB and the state attorneys general specifically claim that the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code and ASHRAE 90.1-2019 will increase housing costs, worsen the affordability crisis and were implemented unconstitutionally.
Background
Last year, HUD and USDA announced plans to adopt a set of requirements from the IECC that define minimum levels and specifications for building insulation, windows, heating and cooling systems, lighting, and other items that use energy. Certain new single-family homes and multifamily housing will need to meet the energy building code requirements for their mortgages to be insured by the federal agencies. Builders of homes and multifamily properties have a schedule to meet the requirements that can be as long as two years.
According to PNNL research, the 2021 IECC is estimated to result in a national average energy savings of around 9.38% for residential buildings compared to the 2018 IECC, with an estimated cost increase for a new home of around $7,200, per single-family unit. This analysis was conducted using a suite of prototype building models representing different climate zones across the United States.
Analysis by Home Innovation Research Labs, a subsidiary of NAHB, estimates that the energy efficiency requirements would add $22,572 to the price of the average new home, and that these increasing costs will result in fewer homes being built and exacerbate the nation’s ongoing housing shortage. The lawsuit also maintains that the energy requirements could constrict the housing supply and increase the number of homeless people in the country.
Suit responses
"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," says NAHB Chairman Carl Harris. "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. Our lawsuit 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."
Spokespeople for both HUD and USDA have responded to requests for comment by saying that they cannot comment on active or pending litigation.
