Read the full op-ed in DC Journal.
America’s housing crisis is widely misunderstood. The national shortage is now an estimated 3.7 million homes, and new construction is projected to slow from 1.4 million units per year today to just 1.1 million annually between 2025 and 2035. Home values have increased roughly 87% since 2012, while median household incomes rose only 18% over the same period. The gap between what America needs in housing and what actually gets built keeps widening, and the consequences fall hardest on first-time buyers, working families and anyone who doesn’t already own property.
There are multiple causes contributing to this crisis: the cost of land, a permitting system designed more to delay than to deliver, and construction costs inflated by both raw material prices and regulatory mandates. A new study from the National Association of Home Builders found that government regulations at all levels now add an average of $131,734 to the cost of a single-family home, more than a 40% increase from 2021 alone.
Congress recently did its part to address this with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. The law has genuine merit in places: Eliminating the chassis requirement for manufactured housing could unlock a tier of affordable construction that has long been artificially suppressed, and easing the regulatory burden on community banks, which hold 57% of residential construction loans, removes friction from the exact part of the market that finances most new homebuilding. But the bill also assigns the Department of Housing and Urban Development at least 35 new programs, regulations, studies and oversight responsibilities. Real progress on housing has always happened at the state and local levels, and that is where the most important work still needs to be done.
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The housing crisis will not be solved by federal legislation alone. The ROAD to Housing Act can nudge the market in the right direction at the margins, but the structural changes required happen at the statehouse and the city council. States that have become serious about housing have moved fast. Montana reformed its zoning laws. Idaho capped minimum lot sizes for starter homes. California’s accessory dwelling unit reforms permitted more than 139,000 units in six years. The playbook is clear.
For states that want to add housing affordability to that list, the message from the building envelope industry is simple: Build smarter. Encourage unvented, conditioned attics. Adopt energy codes that reflect regional climate realities. Stop treating the building code as a mandated upgrade package and start treating it as a floor that enables builders to deliver homes families can actually afford.
Jim Perkins serves as the CEO and owner of SWD Urethane, a leading manufacturer of construction materials providing state-of-the-art solutions to the industry. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. More by Jim Perkins