What regulation adds
to a new home's price
By Justin Kelly
NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson
The National Association of Home Builders puts the cost of regulation at $131,734 on the average new single family home, 26.4% of its price. Some of it comes before the house is started, and the rest while it is built.
At a glance
- NAHB's 2026 study: regulation adds $131,734 to a new single family home built for sale, 26.4% of the average price
- $46,795 of that comes from rules that apply while land is being made ready to build on, and $84,939 from rules during construction
- The total is up more than 40 percent since NAHB's 2021 study. Most of the rise came during construction, from permit fees and building code changes
Guide
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) studies how much of a new home's price comes from government regulation, and repeats the study every few years. Its 2026 edition, Government Regulation in the Price of a New Home, looks at a new single family home built for sale.
The study puts the cost of regulation at $131,734, or 26.4% of the average sales price of $499,500 as of January 2026. It counts federal, state and local rules together, and it measures a national average rather than any one state or town.
About a third of that cost comes before a house is started. The study attributes $46,795 to regulation during land development, the work of getting land ready to build on. The other $84,939 comes from regulation during construction of the home itself.
Regulation during construction now takes a bigger share of the price. Its share went from 13.3% in the 2021 edition to 17.0% in 2026, and NAHB puts that mostly on higher building permit fees and changes to building codes. Across both parts, the total rose more than 40 percent in about five years.
South Jersey New Construction works with builders and land owners across the counties we cover, from selling land to selling the new homes built on it. If you are weighing a project here, we are glad to talk it through.
General information from a national study, not a cost estimate for any specific home or project. Written by Justin Kelly, NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson. More at South Jersey New Construction.
What to know
The study adds federal, state and local rules together and uses a national average, not South Jersey numbers. If you build or own land here, we work with builders and land owners across the counties we cover.
