Biden administration beefs up energy efficiency standards on new federally funded housing

The Biden Administration recently moved to require more stringent energy efficiency standards on federally funded housing projects.

Developers building homes with taxpayer funds will have to construct to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) 2021 for low-density housing and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers ASHRAE 90.1 for multi-family projects. The new standards will result in energy savings of more than 35% for families, officials say.

An estimated 170,000 new homes per year would be impacted by the beefed-up standards. This includes newly built or financed subsidized housing, both urban and rural. Many of the residents will be families of limited means who will benefit from energy cost savings, the administration says.

The White House also pledged $830 million for clean-energy building retrofits for existing homes, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Across the country, multifamily rents have skyrocketed. Year-over-year rents are up by double digits in nine of the top 30 markets, while national YoY rent growth is up 6.3%. Emerging from the pandemic, a perfect storm of migration, enhanced government stimulus and a hot housing market, among other factors, has enabled this extremely strong growth.