On March 13, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14394, Removing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Home Construction. The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, developed a series of regulatory best practices for state and local governments to implement that will ease existing barriers to housing construction and affordability. These practices encourage community and neighborhood choice, which is why the recommendations generally do not address local density directives. The Best Practices are sorted into three categories:

• Cost: Practices that reduce the overall cost of home construction.
• Land: Practices that increase available space for housing development.
• Time: Practices that expedite the overall timeline to building a house.

A common thread among these three categories is a recommendation to utilize technology to ease barriers to housing construction and enhance affordability. From repealing wet signature requirements to modernizing outdated systems in a permitting office, state and local governments should perform a full review of their residential construction process and eliminate administrative and technological burdens to home construction.

These Best Practices outline a state and local regulatory environment for housing that is streamlined, is easy to understand, and reduces costs for consumers. Having a complex regulatory environment also excludes small homebuilding companies that would otherwise be able to add supply to the local market. Significant regulatory burden also results in increased costs for homebuyers. These Best Practices are tailored to recommend efficiencies in the market for home construction that will result in reduced costs for consumers.

The Trump Administration recognizes that jurisdictions need flexibility to implement reasonable requirements to build. However, the state and local regulatory environment in many areas of the country discourages housing development with arcane and inefficient policy. These Best Practices present a clear starting point for all state and local governments to begin, or continue, an active effort to remove unnecessary burdens to home construction in their jurisdiction.