Do Housing Prices Change with Building Codes?

Building codes reduce losses from natural hazards, improve life safety, and increase community resilience, but opponents often argue that updated codes increase housing prices and worsen affordability. This paper examines whether state-level adoption of newer editions of the International Residential Code is associated with changes in home sale prices. Using ATTOM home sales data from 2011 through 2022 and code adoption histories for twenty-six states, we analyze forty-five adoptions of the 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018 IRC editions. We estimate hedonic regression models of logged sale prices, controlling for home size, lot size, bedrooms, bathrooms, home age, sale timing, and ZIP Code fixed effects. For newly constructed homes, most code adoptions are not associated with statistically significant price changes, and the aggregate estimated effect is statistically indistinguishable from zero. In an expanded sample that includes resales of homes up to ten years old, statistically significant price increases following code adoption are rare, while price decreases are more frequent. Robustness tests addressing uncertainty in year-built data produce similar conclusions. We also examine border counties in North Carolina and South Carolina and find no evidence that builders shift construction activity to neighboring jurisdictions following code updates. Overall, the results do not support the claim that modern building code adoption systematically increases home prices or constrains new housing supply. Given the established resilience and safety benefits of modern codes, delaying code adoption is unlikely to improve affordability and may increase vulnerability to future hazards.