New report urges increased scrutiny, affordability safeguards, and longer adoption cycles for residential building codes.

[ST. PAUL, MINN.] A new report released today by Housing Affordability Institute outlines how policymakers, regulators, and code officials can reform how residential energy and building codes are developed and adopted.

“Housing affordability cannot be addressed solely through land use reform while ignoring the growing cost pressures created through the building code process,” said Nick Erickson, executive director of Housing Affordability Institute. “Every code change carries consequences for price, design, and consumer choice, and those impacts deserve greater scrutiny at both the model code and local adoption levels.”

The report argues that while energy efficiency remains an important goal, the cumulative impact of increasingly frequent code changes is making it harder for builders to deliver attainable housing and harder for families to enter the housing market.

The paper highlights several growing concerns with the current system, including:

• Accelerating code adoption cycles that leave little time to evaluate effectiveness
• A proposal process that has become difficult for stakeholders and consumers to navigate
• Limited examination of whether code changes achieve their intended performance outcomes
• The growing use of building codes to advance broader policy goals rather than practical construction standards

According to the report, stronger review standards are needed at both the national model code level and within state and local adoption processes to ensure code changes are justified, effective, and economically sustainable.

To improve the process, Housing Affordability Institute recommends several reforms, including:

• Establishing a baseline centered on safety, durability, and affordability
• Moving from three-year to six-year model code adoption cycles
• Implementing affordability guardrails to better protect homebuyers from high regulatory costs