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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 64 April 2025 J O U R N A L Government HUD DELAYS ENFORCEMENT ON BIDEN ENERGY CODE, CITING AFFORDABILITY CONCERNS T he Trump administration has announced a six-month delay in the implementation of the Biden administration's mandatory energy code. The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) will wait an additional six months before enforcing the compliance dates for 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. "This six-month pause by HUD is an important step forward to help ease the nation's housing affordability crisis," National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chairman Buddy Hughes said. "Compliance with this rule would make it much harder for home builders and multifamily devel- opers to build housing that is available and affordable for American families. The 2021 IECC includes several changes that impact both energy savings and construction costs for residential construction. NAHB found that compli- ance with the 2021 IECC can add more than $20,000 to the price of a new home, however, home builders have estimated increased costs of up to $31,000. "The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) applauds HUD's action to delay the compliance date for the pending requirement that new homes financed by FHA single-family loans must meet IIEC energy stan- dards," said Scott Olson, Executive Director of the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA). The CHLA is a national nonprofit association that focuses on small- and mid-sized community-based mortgage lenders. The mission of the CHLA is to promote federal mortgage programs, rules, and regulations that treat commu- nity mortgage lenders fairly, and reflect the importance that community mort- gage lenders play in providing access to credit for borrowers, and in providing borrowers with quality mortgage ser- vices and access to loans at a local level. "CHLA had called for elimination of this federal incursion into local construction standards—a proposal, whose main impact would have been to deny FHA loans for many homebuy- ers of new homes. Therefore, CHLA calls on FHA to use this delay to take final action to permanently shelve this proposal," Olson added. HUD AND INTERIOR DEPARTMENT PARTNER ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING INITIATIVE U .S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum have announced a Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing to identify underutilized federal lands suitable for residential development, streamline land transfer processes, and promote policies that increase the availability of affordable housing. "We need more affordable homes in America, about seven million to be exact," said HUD Secretary Turner in a video posted to YouTube.