HousingWireHousingWire
In one of his first official appearances as the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Scott Turner spoke at the 2025 International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas and addressed the National Association of Home Builders‘ (NAHB) Leadership Council on the need to bolster the nation’s housing supply.
Key to his approach at HUD will be targeting regulations, which he called “unnecessary, ineffective and costly.” He spoke about the nation’s challenging affordability landscape and how the minimum income to afford a house has precipitously risen.
“Five years ago, if you made $60,000 in this country, you could afford a home,” Turner said. “Today, the income needed to afford a house is more than twice that. Median home price has reached a record high of $426,900 last June. Mortgage rates rose from 2.8% in January 2021 to a high of nearly 8% in October 2023. Home sales in 2024 fell to their lowest levels since 1995.”
Turner then invoked verbiage from his career as a professional football player to further emphasize his outlook on the supply situation.
“The data tells us that we cannot keep running the same old plays and getting the same unacceptable results. Something has to change,” which he repeated for emphasis to applause.
“And while we realize this is a crisis, let’s not think of this as a crisis but as an opportunity. […] This is an opportunity to decrease the cost and increase the supply of safe, quality and affordable housing.”
A key element of that plan is to target regulations that Turner describes as impediments to the creation of new housing supply.
“The foundation of a stable fiscal house is regulatory reform,” Turner added. “At HUD, we are taking inventory and terminating all cumbersome regulations that make it harder for individuals and families to realize the American dream of homeownership.”
“A home is more than four walls. It’s the foundation of a thriving community,” he said. “To decrease the cost and increase the supply of affordable housing, we will terminate these unnecessary, ineffective and costly regulations.”
Turner also described that there will be a “next chapter” to the creation of opportunity zones, an initiative he spearheaded as head of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during the first Trump administration.
Turner made the appearance during a time of turbulence in the government, from which HUD has not been spared.
Reports have emerged since the inauguration of President Trump that large segments of the department — including at key components like the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Ginnie Mae — will endure severe staffing cuts, which have concerned some market participants.
A HUD spokesperson previously disputed reports that large segments of FHA staff will be cut, and a source familiar with HUD’s plans offered a similar perspective on Ginnie Mae.
But former officials at HUD and Ginnie Mae have sounded the alarm over what these cuts could do for people dependent on HUD and FHA assistance programs — and for market participants, in the case of Ginnie Mae programs.
