HUD last Thursday announced that it will require new homes financed or insured by its subsidy programs to follow the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code standard. The nonprofit International Code Council sets what are supposed to be model energy building standards every few years, which states and municipalities can adopt.
Many governments have declined to adopt the 2021 standards because of their higher costs. The National Association of Home Builders says the energy rules can add as much as $31,000 to the price of a new home. It can take up to 90 years for a buyer to realize a payback on the higher up-front costs through lower energy bills.
These incentives include a $5,000 per unit tax credit for “zero energy” multifamily construction that meets prevailing-wage requirements that also raise building costs. HUD adds that builders may also “take advantage of certain EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund programs, especially the Solar for All initiative” and an investment tax credit that can offset 50% of a solar project’s cost.
Notwithstanding these taxpayer handouts, HUD estimates that the new standards will raise the cost of a single-family home by $7,229 and the average annual mortgage payment by $439, assuming a 5.3% mortgage interest rate. But mortgage payments will increase by much more at today’s 7% to 8% interest rates and could easily offset notional savings on energy bills.
@WittyT4riffConstitution2wks2W
We are living surreal times. Like, 'we will raise your cost of building a home, but don't worry, your higher taxes will help pay for it". Plus, we are running cataclysmic fiscal deficits. The idea of taxes going to something other than to help reduce the deficits, at this point, is absolute lunacy.
@JoyfulSalamiPatriot2wks2W
The Biden Administration, like the Obama Admin before it, including HUD, has an unlimited supply of bad ideas that they proudly trot-out and, by and large, are never challenged in the maximally sympathetic dominant press. The party whose ideas are so good they have to be mandatory has long-ago foregone common sense and good judgement. I guess if ya don't have 'em, ya don't miss 'em - common sense and good judgement, that is.
Did anybody see the latest PBS This Old House? A project in a "historical" neighborhood, with so many crazy restrictions placed on it that only a person with at least 2 million to burn could afford it? I taught construction and did a lot of it in the summer. I know what stuff costs. The liberals on city commisions and planning boards are the #1 reason houses cost so much in 2024.
@Lobby1stAnteaterVeteran2wks2W
Excellent point. The red tape is enormous and drives up costs. Here in the Northwest we finally got some clarity on increasing housing density in existing neighborhoods by allowing infill as well as more duplexes and fourplexes but the bureaucracy is still out of control causing these projects to cost more than they should.
@NiftyMackerelForward2wks2W
And the inflation drum keeps on beating....the Fed can't "offset the regulators"....irony is rich. Bidenomics in action...
Vote these people out in November...it's imperative now.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
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