A pair of executive orders recently signed by President Donald Trump that are intended to make home buying more affordable may take some time to have an impact in Utah.
The orders, signed last Friday, direct federal agencies to ease government regulations seen as adding to the nation’s housing shortage by increasing building costs, as well as those deemed to limit mortgage options.
Provo realtor Steven Bond, the past president of the Utah Association of Realtors, said it is too soon to tell how the orders will affect housing in the state. Still, he said, the attention the affordability issue is getting in Washington, D.C. is positive.
“Anytime that more people are talking about how to solve it, and hopefully willing to do things to create efficiency and a streamlining of the process while still protecting the integrity of construction, is a win for us,” Bond said.
“We think that’s incredibly important, to help solve for this issue,” he said. “Because the affordability issue is really a supply issue. That is the best way to solve for this, is creating the supply.”
Making mortgages more available is also key to resolving what has long been called a housing crisis in Utah, Bond said. “Some loosening up, where people still have the appropriate incomes and can get into home ownership, we support that.”
Trump’s “Removing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Home Construction” order targets a long list of government regulations including those related to wetlands, historical preservation, energy efficiency, residential building codes and tax incentives for developers.
It also calls for federal officials to come up with “a series of regulatory best practices for state and local governments” within 60 days that streamline the permitting process, curtail “green” mandates that increase costs, reexamine modular housing restrictions and remove growth limits.
A fact sheet from the White House blames “(l)ayers of red tape, slow permitting processes, and costly environmental mandates imposed by progressive policymakers at the state, local, and federal level” for pricing many Americans out of the housing market.
The “Promoting Access to Mortgage Credit” order focuses on reducing regulations on mortgages and construction loans made by community and smaller banks to encourage competition among lenders.
The White House fact sheet on that order states it is “restoring mortgage competition to lower rates” and that over the past decade, regulatory actions have “dramatically increased the cost and complexity of accessing a mortgage.”
Bond said it’s not clear what all the mortgage access order will do, and its effect on reducing rates is hypothetical at this point. Mortgage rates, which recently had fallen below 6%, have climbed since the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran at the end of February.
The biggest potential impact on Utah from easing federal regulations may be on wetland development, he said, possibly reducing what’s normally a 12- to 18-month permitting process in those places by a couple of months.
Bond said the federal government is addressing the “overstep” in both regulations and costs.
For “what the federal government is doing, we say, ‘Thank you for having a focus on it,’” he said. “Stay tuned and we’ll see if it means something.”
Steve Waldrip, the senior advisor to Gov. Spencer Cox on housing strategy and innovation, suggested the orders could help with the administration’s goal of getting 35,000 starter homes built in the state by 2028.
That’s “a key priority for the governor,” Waldrip said. “We welcome common sense solutions to help Utahns achieve the American dream of homeownership, including reducing unnecessary regulation and increasing loan options.”