- 2 days ago
On today’s episode, HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins interviews HUD Secretary Scott Turner about HUD’s rescission of the energy-efficiency requirements for loans backed by the FHA and USDA.
Related to this episode:
HUD rescinds FHA, USDA energy efficiency rule for new homes
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/hud-rescinds-iecc-rule/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.
Related to this episode:
HUD rescinds FHA, USDA energy efficiency rule for new homes
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/hud-rescinds-iecc-rule/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:08secretary turner thank you for joining us at the gathering 2026 thrilled to have you here
00:13your home state texas yes sir i'm so happy to be here thank you it's good to see you again
00:17it's great to see you too and i know that our guests i think we've a little over 900 registered
00:22guests here down here in barton creek um they're pumped to see you and most of them had lunch in
00:28about eight minutes so you get back in the room and uh and hear you speak well that's uh it's
00:32very
00:32humbling and i'm always grateful for people that want to invest the time to come here you know what
00:39we're doing at hud yep and so when you get an opportunity please tell everybody i said thank
00:43you i certainly will i'll be back on the stage tomorrow and i'll make sure that that gratitude
00:48is shared um what you have here an exec an executive audience of mortgage and real estate and home
00:54building leaders are are people that i that i believe are just as invested in you are as you
00:59are in furthering home ownership and helping make housing more efficient accessible and um and hopefully
01:07more sustainable some for those of us who have been in the industry for a few cycles we want to
01:11see a
01:11housing market that um you know isn't uh isn't on a cyclical turn every time we turn around right um
01:17i know a lot of the folks here are here hoping to help further that mission by learning and sharing
01:22absolutely i feel the same in our team at hud we feel the same way you know we came into
01:27hud we
01:27said you know we're going to return back to the mission-minded focus of hud we understand what
01:33we've been called to we understand the mission that we've been called to and the people that we've been
01:38called to serve and you know as a founder and a leader and a ceo you have to stay on
01:42the mission
01:43you don't want mission drift and when they talk about housing affordability uh there were policies
01:49during the bad administration that really hindered housing affordability that strained the the housing
01:54supply drove cost up be it from the immigration from inflation from mortgage rates and but you
02:00can see under president trump we've been laser focused on one secure the border make sure that
02:06you know american homes for american people bring down interest rates bring down inflation so we can
02:11bring the cost down and raise the supply and so every day when we talk about the the mission you
02:17talk
02:17about stability in the mission everybody likes stability and so what we're doing is starting
02:22with the deregulation take down a heavy a heavy burdensome regulatory environment from the federal
02:30standpoint at hud we took down the affirmatively furthering fair housing rule which was a burden
02:35regulation a burdensome regulation a myriad of paperwork that was put on locals you know when it came to
02:42uh building communities zoning community and affs did not build not one single home hud essentially
02:48became a national zoning board and so we tore that down to restore flexibility back to the localities
02:54so we can have stability in the community and so deregulation the president signed in two new
03:00executive orders uh to bring down regulatory environment on uh construction new affordable home and
03:06also to increase the competition in the mortgage industry to bring back the hometown lender yep the
03:13community bank which i believe for years historically community banks and community lenders they really
03:21provided stability in the community in particularly for uh first-time homebuyers and low to moderate income
03:27you know it's funny you say that like when this industry over the last decade has talked a lot about
03:31digital
03:31mortgages and everyone thought the first-time millennial home home buyer was going to be the
03:35one who uh who rushed to do their transaction fully online and we've seen that first-time homebuyers are
03:41are often the ones who want their their in-person advice they want to sit down across the desk from
03:45somebody a loan originator and a great qualified agent to walk them through that super important
03:51financial decision so uh what we've heard in the industry what we've seen in data what we've seen in
03:56surveys um rhymes with exactly your point of the importance of the hometown lender right and you
04:03know i know like for me at this stage and i may be a little old school and i do
04:09love technology and ai
04:11we're using it at hud to to streamline our processes our project hugs which is being ran by our cfo
04:18there
04:18irv dennis and his team you know it's in particular for the uh sub-recipient level uh to attack waste
04:25fraud
04:25and abuse so technology is awesome to ai but that human touch sometime in particular when you're a
04:32first-time home buyer yep and you don't understand all the paperwork and the people at the mortgage
04:38company and the title company walk you through it you know there's an endearing feeling there that
04:43somebody's walking you through the greatest investment that you've ever made and so i think the hybrid of
04:48new technology and the um the endearing spirit if you will of the human guidance and touch uh as i
04:58as i
04:58think is something that we cannot lose so can i tell you what i most recently used ai for yeah
05:02so i
05:03mentioned on stage that we had two former nfl players uh on the stage earlier this morning so
05:08the last thing i asked my ai assistant was um did scott turner uh uh tayron armstead and drew
05:15bledsoe ever crossed paths on the field they instantly ruled out tehran did you and drew ever
05:20match up yes you did i think when drew was in new england because our careers overlapped when he was
05:27in new england we played new england and the game that we played them tom brady became uh had already
05:36become the quarterback so our careers overlapped but unfortunately uh i had to face brady on that day
05:44he he he joked on stage that um uh brady brady didn't know he was supposed to be there as
05:50backup
05:50and i mean that's he didn't come back yeah he uh he was a six-round draft pick out of
05:56michigan that
05:56couldn't run to save his life but he has a very unique mindset yep and perspective obviously you
06:02know seven superbowls later and 21 years in the nfl well sorry for keep going back to football a lot
06:08of
06:08important housing topics to discuss maybe it's uh you know it's a this uh audience of entrepreneurs
06:13and competitive people definitely see the the correlation and overlap between the the competition
06:19we we learn on the field i'm getting that right now as i coach my four-year-old son's basketball
06:24team
06:24i'm trying to relive um my glory days but uh that's a lot of competition oh yeah it's um who's
06:29gonna go
06:29the right way yeah and do i not hit my head on the six-foot hoop i can't i can't
06:33wait till they go up to
06:34the eight-foot hoop and i'll save myself a few bruises are they shooting on the uh correct basket
06:38um that's part of the job no part of the reason the coaches are on the court during these games
06:43it's
06:44it's literally steering them in the right direction but they're they're learning that's sweet
06:48kindergarten will be a big stage up all right awesome bringing it back to housing on stage you
06:52announced a um a pretty big deregulatory announcement um share that news with our podcast
06:58okay so a 2024 uh final determination was issued under president uh biden and it rendered that all
07:06new home construction uh for fha and usda backed mortgages was ineligible unless they adhere to uh this
07:16international energy conservation code the iecc and so this in and of itself we talk about deregulation
07:23we talk about bureaucratic you know burdensome uh heavy-handed regulations this was a prime example
07:30of that builders were building two energy codes already and so this was you know more paperwork
07:37more reviews of construction uh it was a a greater look at the wiring a greater look at the insulation
07:45which builders and developers are already doing and so we uh have rescinded this final determination
07:52uh to restore uh to restore this flexibility and restore uh this control back to uh builders and
07:58developers around our country and a great example of this clay is in kansas city missouri when they
08:03adopted this the iecc i think it was in 2023 for the first three months there were no new home
08:10starts
08:10there was a 22 percent decrease in permits pool for new construction there was 78 percent uh reduction
08:19in the number of builders that were in kansas city so you think about that in the market well we
08:24need
08:24affordable housing we need workforce housing and you have a reduction in the permits pool you have no new
08:31home starts in three months for the first three months and then 78 percent of the builders leave the
08:36community and so we're very excited to make this announcement so that the industry can build and
08:43buyers can buy it's you can't understate the importance of new inventory coming into our
08:49supply we sit on a relatively aged housing stock in in the u.s and whenever a builder pulls out
08:54of the
08:55market um you know it might send a negative signal but what it does to home prices is it pushes
08:59up
09:00it pushes the floor up underneath existing inventory because that existing inventory becomes
09:04that much more competitive so even in markets where new home construction might only make up single
09:09digit percentages of of annual sales you pull out that supply lever and it just messes up the whole
09:17dynamic for existing and first-time home buyers who are hunting for for often that that entry-level
09:23product that home builder has been really good at bringing to market that's right and it you know we
09:27you know in particular for gen z yeah and millennials i'm glad we're talking about gen z now i'm a
09:32i'm an
09:33elder millennial and i'm tired we own houses now we've got there you go you in a good spot yeah
09:38but you
09:39think about that part of my mindset and heart attitude for myself and my team is that we want
09:48the younger generation gen z millennials to be hopeful yep that they can own a home to be hopeful that
09:55as
09:55they are faithful stewards that they could start a family own a home and achieve the american dream of
10:02home ownership and start to create financial stability and security for them and their families and that
10:07drives us every day it encourages us it challenges us uh the president is he's of the same mindset laser
10:14focus on making housing more affordable and so i think with this announcement with deregulation
10:19what our fha and genie may programs at hud i think we're off to a great start yeah so i'm
10:25going to come
10:25back as we wrap up the conversation to a leadership question so this is coming to you from for me
10:31as
10:31as ceo of housing wire to you as secretary of hud i see you i'm flooded with ideas i got
10:37i have my own
10:38ideas like running all the time i got clients that have have asked i got employees that have been team
10:43members that have fabulous ideas investors other folks in the industry um prioritization becomes like
10:50just just such a big priority you talked about stability earlier you can't lead a stable organization
10:55if you don't have clear priorities how do you prioritize everything that's hitting your plate
11:00as as hud secretary i'm sure you have you know stakeholders and inside of of the administration
11:06you know you have um you have u.s taxpayers you have industry where you have interactions with like
11:12how do you prioritize what matters to you in your role well i think it goes back to the mission
11:17you know what is your mission yep and our mission at hud is to provide safe sustainable quality
11:24affordable housing and to help more people in america to achieve the american dream
11:31if that's our mission then how does the work that we do every day fit into that mission
11:37and if it does not then it's not a priority you know how do we help our homeless neighbors around
11:43america to not only receive housing but to get treatment yep for the root of their homelessness
11:51and then to be transformed and then to live a life of self-sustainability if the work and the ideas
11:57that are coming in do not line up with that mission of our homelessness initiatives then it's not a priority
12:03in disaster recovery the same and so what i would say is that every day we have to remind ourselves
12:09what's the mission are the ideas that are coming do they help us to accomplish the mission and if
12:17they don't then they're not a priority when i was in the nfl playing on defense i was a defensive
12:21back
12:22every single defensive coordinator i had every single week said what is our number one priority
12:29stop the run now mind you playing against emmy smith barry sanders you know so sometimes like
12:36that's a harder ask it sounds but it was the mission you know it was a priority and so every
12:41defense that was called every play that was ran on defense was number one stop the run because if you
12:47stop the run then you can open up the playbook and be more aggressive on the pass and so that
12:52would
12:52be my advice i mean that's a great example it says you're stuck in a position where you're always
12:56playing defense you never get to play offense and get anything done i mean i feel like this industry
13:01industry of mortgage and real estate leaders and you know someone who serves the industry
13:05man when rates started shooting up in in 2023 it put us all on our heels we all went defensive
13:10and
13:10there's very few people who were prepared with the the cash the balance sheet the mindset the strategy
13:16to go into an offensive stance which is the only way you ever win that's it you have to be
13:21you have to
13:22be on attack mode yeah you know the greatest defenses in football are the ones that take it to the
13:30offense not the ones that receive and try to defend but the ones that move the line of scrimmage
13:38the other way yep and then dare you to come across the middle right and so i think it's the
13:45same in
13:45industry not that we would have that type of violent mindset i'm not saying that but we have a mindset
13:49that says we're going to attack the problem well i mean if you're going to further the analogy like
13:55moving the the line of play i mean that's um that's help making housing more affordable that's
14:00that's having the right product in market that's having uh um hopefully now this is all not all in
14:05your control but hopefully having the the jobs and the income to support people to buy inventory at the
14:10price that it's at it's a stable it's a healthy economy it takes all of us working together policy and
14:14um and uh public private uh partnership and and an approach that's right and you said it all it's an
14:21all hands on deck yep approach and at hud you know we're really blessed that we have a team that
14:28is very
14:28proactive we understand the mission we do a great job of listening to industry we understand the issues
14:37and the problems that face us as it pertains to housing homelessness uh disaster recovery but for
14:43sake of our sake of our conversation for housing affordability and so we have a team at hud that
14:48is very creative and innovative not just to receive the ideas and respond but to get ahead of it yep
14:56and
14:56say well here's our mission here's the problem let's try this uh as it is appropriate according to
15:04who we are and i think because of that that we've been able to accomplish a lot well you have
15:09a fabulous
15:10team that's focused on the the mission and the vision secretary turner thank you for joining us
15:15at the gathering uh for our audience our listeners i can assure you that there's going to be updates on
15:21this um update to the iecc and this deregulatory action on the pages of housing wire hopefully you got
15:27a breaking news alert by the time this uh this podcast hits um i can't thank you enough for thank
15:32you giving us your time your energy your service i'm honored to be here
15:45thank you
15:45you
15:45you
15:45you
15:46you
15:46you
15:46you
15:46you
15:46you
Comments