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Newly confirmed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner told homebuilders at an industry conference last week that he would work to reduce “cumbersome regulations” hampering the construction of more affordable housing.
Speaking at the 2025 International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, Turner said the housing market is amid an “affordability and homelessness crisis.”
Americans are struggling to afford homeownership, he said, pointing to record high home prices, elevated mortgage rates and rising regulatory costs—which comprise nearly $100,000 of the price of a new home, builders say. This is chipping away at the methods builders use to help home buyers with affordability.
“We can’t keep running the same old plays and accepting the same old unacceptable results,” Turner said. “Something has to change. This is a crisis. But there’s an opportunity to decrease the costs and increase the supply of safe, quality housing.”
Turner said HUD is committed to streamlining regulatory practices for the nation’s homebuilders so they can avoid lengthy delays and added costs for items such as additional environmental reviews. “We will continue to reduce all burdens that are inflating housing costs,” he said.
Turner also pointed to expanding initiatives, such as the Qualified Opportunity Zone program—which the National Association of REALTORS® supports—to help revitalize distressed communities and “unleash the power of the private sector and the free market so that we can build our way out of the housing affordability crisis.”
Turner has announced that HUD will launch a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Task Force to review how the agency spends and allocates money. “We’re taking inventory at HUD on what works and what doesn’t for every program,” he said. “Is it being used for the intended purpose? Is it serving the people? How can we make it better?”
NAR is working with Turner to make sure any HUD cuts don’t impede fair housing efforts or consumers’ ability to buy and sell homes, NAR Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn says in the latest episode of the “Advocacy Scoop” podcast. Staff at HUD “have been hearing that we are tracking these staff cuts very closely to monitor the impact that it will have on any of the public policies or the programs that we work with,” she says. “So, I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Turner about a month or so ago, and he is very excited to develop this relationship [with NAR]."
One of the focus areas of the relationship will be how NAR and HUD can work together to support the proposed Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) Act, which encourages state and local governments to remove barriers to housing development and implement pro-growth policies. Passage of the bill, which is a top advocacy priority for NAR, would open more opportunities for the construction of affordable housing.
Turner, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives and the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, was confirmed as HUD Secretary in early February.
“[He] understands the key role that access to housing and homeownership plays in the health of individuals and communities,” said Shannon McGahn, chief advocacy officer at the National Association of REALTORS®, in a statement shortly after Turner’s HUD confirmation. “At a time when a national housing inventory shortage has contributed to an affordability crisis, HUD programs are more important than ever in helping Americans overcome barriers to affordable rental housing, sustainable homeownership and the opportunity to create generational wealth.”
