Regulations at the federal, state and local levels add $131,734 to the cost of a new single-family home, a new study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) found.
That’s 26.4% of the average sales price of $499,500 as of January 2026, the NAHB said.
A breakdown of the total regulatory costs further showed that $84,939 of the final house price is the result of costs incurred by the builder due to regulation during the construction phase of the home while $46,795 is attributable to regulation during land development, NAHB noted.
“This study illustrates how excessive regulation is deepening the nation’s housing affordability crisis and making it harder for builders to deliver the affordable, attainable housing that our nation sorely needs,” said NAHB Chairman Bill Owens, a home builder and remodeler from Worthington, Ohio. “Policymakers should remove unnecessary and costly regulations that are pricing buyers out of the market and slowing construction of new homes and apartments.”
Land Development
According to the NAHB, the share of regulation in the land development phase fell from 10.5% in 2021 to 9.4% in 2026, but the construction phase increased by nearly four percentage points, rising from 13.3% to 17.0%. That was largely because of higher building permit fees and changes to building codes over the past decade.
Based on U.S. Census home price data, regulatory costs for the average new home increased from $93,870 in 2021 to $131,734 in 2026, an increase of more than 40% in roughly five years.
Over that same period, NAHB said, U.S. disposable income increased just 18.3%, meaning that regulatory costs are increasing more than twice as fast as consumers’ ability to pay.
