Turner Rescinds 2024 Rule, Fha Financing Costs Up to $31,000
HUD is rescinding a 2024 rule that made new homes ineligible for fha financing and USDA-backed loans unless they met 2021 IECC compliance. Secretary Scott Turner said the rollback will first apply to new construction, reversing a standard that had raised the cost of qualifying homes.
Turner said the rule could add $20,000 to $31,000 per single-family project. For builders, that is the immediate change: the standards tied to FHA and USDA financing will revert to the energy-efficiency rules that were in place before the 2024 publication.
Scott Turner on 2024 rule
“If a home was to receive an FHA or USDA mortgage, it was deemed ineligible if it did not comply with the IECC,” Turner said at HousingWire’s The Gathering in Austin. “Today, I am rescinding this onerous rule because it literally can bring an increase of $20,000 to $31,000 per single-family project.”
He added, “During the Biden administration, they said: ‘Well, these upfront costs will be able to be recovered. But what they didn’t revise, or didn’t say, is that it is going to take 90 years to do that,” he added. The administration had already published an extension that delayed the rule deadline for its programs until Dec. 31, 2026, before moving to scrap the requirement altogether.
HUD and USDA rollback
The 2024 rule had tied FHA and USDA-backed loan eligibility for new construction to 2021 IECC compliance, a requirement HUD and USDA said they were now pulling back from. In July 2025, the agencies issued a Request for Information seeking additional comment from stakeholders, then said the move aligned with a recent ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
That court found the Biden-era determination would decrease housing availability. Brooke Rollins said, “We are focused on removing all the unnecessary restrictions that artificially drive up new home prices.”
Builders face lower cost pressure
Logan Mohtashami said, “Deregulation, especially lowering the cost, is a positive in housing. The builders care about their profit margins. Any initiative to help with the cost is a benefit to anybody,” tying the rollback directly to project economics.
The practical shift is narrow but immediate: new construction seeking FHA or USDA financing will be judged under the standards that predated the 2024 rule, not the newer code tied to 2021 IECC compliance. If the cost math Turner cited holds, the rollback removes a pricing hurdle that could have pushed some projects out of reach for buyers using those loan programs.
