Research Finder

2016 Energy

Regional Construction Starts: Trends, Impacts and Energy Codes

Sarno Goldthwait, C., Westmoreland, L.; Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships and Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance

Neither SEEA nor NEEP identified any evidence supporting the claim that energy codes depress construction activity. In both regions, permit numbers are on the rise, and most states have surpassed their pre-recession peak, despite implementation of updated energy codes.

2024 Energy

Do Stronger Energy Codes Move Development to Neighboring Jurisdictions?

Lindburg, A., Kogan, A., LeZaks, J.; Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance

Using both exploratory data analysis and regression, the study determines that there is likely not a strong or direct correlation between Illinois’s energy code updates and the number of singlefamily permits applied for in Illinois counties that border other states relative to their cross-border counterparts.

2025 Economics Nationwide

Building Costs and House Prices

Potter, B. and Syverson, C.; National Bureau of Economic Research

A long, broad, and theoretically agnostic view toward the connection between building costs and house prices in the US housing market, finding that building costs have never had all that much explanatory power over US housing prices, but even the imperfect correlations of the past have weakened further in recent decades along multiple dimensions.

2026 Economics Nationwide

Do Housing Prices Change with Building Codes?

Awondo, S., Crawford, S., Powell, L.; Culverhouse College of Commerce & Business Administration, University of Alabama

This paper examines whether state-level adoption of newer editions of the International Residential Code is associated with changes in home sale prices.

2025 Wildfire WUI

Construction Costs for Wildfire-Resistant Homes: Altadena, CA Edition (Post-Eaton Fire)

Headwaters Economics; Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)

Cost analysis of rebuilding in Altadena, California, following the 2025 Eaton Fire. Based on a 1,750 sq ft single-family home with an estimated $500,000 construction cost, found that constructing a wildfire-resistant home adds only about 3% to the total cost of building components most relevant to wildfire mitigation.

2018 Wildfire WUI

Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs (Montana Edition)

Headwaters Economics; Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)

Compared the construction costs of a typical 2,500 sq ft, single-family wildland-urban interface home in southwest Montana to one built with wildfire-resistant materials and design features. Found negligible cost differences between typical and wildfire-resistant construction— establishing that wildfire-resistant building codes do not impose substantial cost burdens.

2022 Wildfire WUI

Construction Costs for a Wildfire Resilient Home: California Edition

Headwaters Economics; Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)

Cost analysis of building wildfire-resistant homes in California across three resilience levels found that vulnerable areas of a home can be mitigated for less than $3,000 during new construction, demonstrating affordability of beyond-code wildfire resilience.

2025 Hurricane Wind

Performance of IBHS FORTIFIED Home Construction in Hurricane Sally

Awondo, S., Hollans, H., Powell, L., Wade, M.; Center for Risk and Insurance Research (CRIR), University of Alabama; Alabama Department of Insurance

Found FORTIFIED homes suffered significantly less damage and required fewer insurance claims than homes built to standard construction. FORTIFIED homes also outperformed homes built to identical municipal code criteria but lacking third-party FORTIFIED documentation, demonstrating the importance of verification and inspection.

2023 Flood Hurricane Wind Storm Surge

Mitigation Assessment Team Report: Hurricane Ian in Florida — Building Performance Observations, Recommendations, and Technical Guidance (FEMA P-2342)

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Field assessment following Hurricane Ian's 2022 landfall in Florida found that two-thirds (67%) of all Hurricane Ian NFIP residential building and contents claims came from non-elevated buildings, while elevated single-family residences performed substantially better.

2003 Affordability Housing Costs Nationwide Zoning

The Impact of Building Restrictions on Housing Affordability

Edward L. Glaeser; Joseph Gyourko

Finds that high housing prices are primarily driven by land‑use restrictions and supply constraints, not construction or building code costs. Demonstrates that where housing prices far exceed physical construction costs, regulatory limits on supply are the dominant factor.

2005 Economics Nationwide

Building Codes and Housing

David Listokin (Rutgers University); David B. Hattis (Building Technology Inc.), HUD PD&R

Reviews theory and empirical evidence on whether building codes raise housing costs. Finds that the most rigorous quantitative studies show building codes increase housing costs by approximately 5% or less and have far less impact on affordability than land‑use, zoning, and subdivision regulations.

2025 Energy Extreme Heat Health Indoor Air Quality Nationwide

Impacts of Energy and Construction Codes on Health Outcomes

New Buildings Institute

Analyzes how modern building energy and construction codes improve public health outcomes by reducing heat‑related mortality, improving indoor air quality, lowering exposure to pollutants, and reducing respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses associated with poor building performance.

2019 Energy Health & Safety Multi‑Hazard Nationwide Resilience

The Value and Impact of Building Codes

Ellen Vaughan, Jim Turner, (Environmental and Energy Study Institute)

Comprehensive synthesis demonstrating that modern building codes are the most cost‑effective mechanism for protecting public health, safety, and welfare. Reviews lifecycle cost savings, disaster loss avoidance, consumer benefits, and the importance of regular adoption and enforcement of updated model codes.

2015 Energy

Report – New Home Cost v. Price Study, Residential Standards, California Building Energy Efficiency Standards

Nehemiah Stone (Benningfield Group) Jerry Nickelsburg and William Yu (UCLA Anderson Forecast), PG&E

The report concluded that construction cost growth is only marginally associated with home value growth and that there is no evidence an increase in construction cost will cause higher home prices in CA. The study determined that home construction costs are highly correlated to the national cost of inputs and there is no significant statistical evidence that CA’s energy efficiency code, Title 24, is associated with home construction costs.

2006 Flood Hurricane Wind

Hurricane Katrina and the Paradoxes of Government Disaster Policy: Bringing About Wise Governmental Decisions for Hazardous Areas

Raymond J. Burby, Annals of the AAPSS

Extensive damage in New Orleans and the trend in increasing numbers and severity of disasters are the wholly predictable (in fact, predicted) outcomes of well-intentioned, but short-sighted, public policy decisions at all levels of government.

2014 Hail

Convective Storm Vulnerability: Quantifying the Role of Effective and Well-Enforced Building Codes in Minimizing Missouri Hail Property Damage

Czajkowski, Jeffrey & Simmons, Kevin. Land Economics.

Modeled Missouri hail claim insurance data from 2008 to 2010 consistently indicates that more favorable building codes do in fact matter in reducing hail damage on the order of 10% to 20%.

2019 Flood

Mitigation Assessment Team Report: Hurricane Harvey in Texas: Building Performance Observations, Recommendations, and Technical Guidance

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Averaged flood insurance claims were approximately $88,000 lower per building when local floodplain management regulations had been adopted before, rather than after, buildings were constructed.

2024 Energy Nationwide