House Passes Energy Efficiency Rules Rollback Aimed at Home Affordability

The House passed a bill on Friday aimed at rolling back regulation of energy efficiency standards for manufactured housing, which advocates say will reduce housing costs.

The Affordable Housing Over Mandating Efficiency Standards (HOMES) Act (HR 5184) removed the Department of Energy's ability to regulate manufactured housing energy efficiency standards, which it gained in a 2022 final rule. The 263-147 vote sends the bill to the Senate.

Introduced by Republican Reps. Mike Flood of Nebraska and Erin Houchin of Indiana, the bill returns those authorities to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Doing so could reduce the upfront costs of buying a home, Houchin said on the House floor on Friday.

The bill comes during a push by President Donald Trump aimed at housing affordability. Earlier this month, Trump instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities. He also signaled a desire to block major institutional investors from buying up single-family homes.

A Realtor.com® analysis shows that sharp, unlikely changes in the housing market would be needed to bring the housing market to the more affordable conditions of 2019. Mortgage rates would need to drop to 2.65% from 6.15%, incomes would need to rise 56%, or home prices would need to fall 35%.

"Decreasing the cost of home ownership should be the single most important domestic policy issue we tackle on the economy," Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, the bill's lone Democratic co-sponsor, said during a markup session last year.

The bill garnered support from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which said it could reduce regulatory complexity and allow manufacturers to rely on one set of HUD rules, as well as the National Taxpayers Union, arguing it lowers costs.

Environmental organizations, including the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the League of Conservation Voters, have raised concerns that the measure could lead to increased air and climate pollution.

They've also worried that such rollbacks would raise energy costs in less energy-efficient homes.

Pete Maysmith, president of the League of Conservation Voters, wrote that the bill could "lock families living in manufactured homes into higher energy costs, increase electric grids’ strain, drive up long term utility and infrastructure expenses for ratepayers, and undermine proven solutions that keep living costs affordable."

Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, says it's unlikely the DOE regulations were felt by the market due to compliance date pushbacks. The median price of manufactured homes held steady from 2022 to 2024 and fell in 2025.

"It's important to note that while the DOE regulations would add to the price of new manufactured housing upfront, they were also expected to save monthly costs on energy usage going forward," Berner explains. "So without them, there is a trade-off between purchase price and carrying costs."

The bill is closely connected to the Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing (SHOWER) Act (HR 4593), which would revise showerhead guidelines, also aimed at energy efficiency.