By Malachi Rein, Director, Building Energy Exchange St. Louis
Costs are dominating conversations across the United States. When folks talk about housing affordability, they often focus on a misleading number: the price of the home itself. Census Bureau stats show that even homeowners without mortgages have seen their monthly housing costs increase. You can see this on your taxes, utility bills and insurance premiums. The cost of living in a home has been rising sharply.
This highlights a problem economists call a split incentive. Decision makers are not paying the long-term operating costs. Without clear standards, buyers often don’t receive the quality they assume they’re purchasing. Energy use, resilience, and even insurance risk are all the direct result of design choices, materials, and construction methods. A correctly-insulated wall, a roof designed for severe weather, or efficient mechanical systems all influence what homeowners pay to live there.
That’s where building codes come in. Despite claims that codes make housing unaffordable, these rising costs don’t seem to correlate with code updates that are vetted and written by professionals including homebuilders. What modern codes do is require homes to meet basic expectations for safety, durability, and efficiency. The industry also has a credibility challenge to address. The term “builder grade” has become shorthand for crummy quality. In places with weaker or outdated codes, that minimum can become substandard leftovers from elsewhere. When something is new or “built to code,” we should be confident it represents a reasonable modern standard.
Think about it this way: if a mortgage payment increases slightly, but energy bills, maintenance costs, and insurance risks fall by a greater, and more predictable, amount, most homeowners would consider that a good deal. We’ve accepted this logic in other areas of life. Cars are more expensive today partly because they include safety features like airbags. Few people argue that removing airbags would make cars “more affordable.” Instead, we recognize that safety standards protect both individuals and communities. Homes should be no different. Cars even have their energy use (mpg) listed at sale.
Housing exists for people to live in, not just profit from. Good builders know that durable, efficient homes create long-term value for everyone involved. However, when standards are weak, the market doesn’t reward quality, it rewards cutting corners. Buyers have power. Ask questions and demand quality. As friend, code expert, and builder Matt Belcher likes to say:
You don’t get what you expect.
You get what you inspect.