Kansas City Homebuyers to Face Higher Energy Costs
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Once a beacon of energy efficiency in the Midwest, Kansas City’s “light” is now a little dimmer.
In early February, the Kansas City, MO City Council narrowly voted to walk back their progressive energy code at the behest of local builders. Mayor Quinton Lucas could have stopped the passage of Ordinance 260144, but declined. At a time when the U.S. is prioritizing dirtier, more expensive energy sources, this could spell big trouble for the wallets of Kansas City homebuyers.
The ordinance rolls back the wall insulation R-values from 30 to 19. This puts new homes in KC closer to what would be required in climate zone 3. As you can see on the climate zone map from the 2021 IECC (below), Kansas City is closer to climate zone 5 than 3 (though thanks to climate change, climate zone 3 is slowly moving north, so maybe they were just thinking really far ahead).
They also did away with duct testing “when all ductwork is located entirely within the building thermal envelope”. On the surface, this might seem ok, but they reduced the wall insulation requirements. Therefore, a less insulated home plus potentially leaky ducts means a less efficient system… and higher energy costs.
Finally, they raised the ERI compliance number to 70 for smaller homes (less than 2,000 s.f.) and 65 for larger homes. Kansas City allows the same two numbers when using HERS as a compliance path, which is not a model code compliance path. In the model 2021 IECC, there are no numbers remotely close to 65 (let alone 70) in the ERI table. In fact, an ERI of 70 is 20% higher (for larger homes) and almost 30% higher (for smaller homes) than the ERI score of 54 that the model code calls for in climate zone 4.
And if we pretend that these homes are located in climate zone 3, which is where their new wall insulation says they are, the delta gets even more egregious. The model code ERI compliance number is 51, which is a far cry from 65 or 70. In what industry do newer products perform worse on day 1 than they did just 2 years prior?
As you might expect, the local and state builders are ecstatic about this new development. In NAHB’s celebratory press release, they claimed that “the disastrous rollout of the unamended 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) caused home building in the city to grind to a halt”. Merriam Webster defines “halt” as: “to bring to a stop”, “discontinue”, “terminate” and “end.”
Apparently, the KCHBA doesn’t read that version of the dictionary, because to them, halt apparently means 442 single-family permits between January and October 2025, or 375 such permits between January and October 2024 (Kansas City Star, Jan. 2026).
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time hyperbolic language has come out of Kansas City. Some readers of this space might recall the outrageous claim made by a KC builder, to a U.S. House of Representatives’ subcommittee no less, that energy codes added over $30,000 to the cost of a new home.
A more objective source of information might be the Federal Reserve, which tracks building permits for 1-unit structures for the Kansas City metro area on a monthly basis. As you can see below, there are hundreds of single-family structures being built every month. (This does not include multi-unit structures, which can also house people and, depending on criteria, could be governed by the 2021 IECC. More on that in a moment.)
If we look at the chart for multi-unit housing structures, we can see that, depending on the month, there have been between 400 and 1,600 new housing starts each month since the 2021 IECC went into effect in KC. If that’s what “halt” means, then someone needs to have a conversation with Merriam and/or Webster.
Kansas City isn’t the only location rolling back their energy codes. Other examples have been shared in this space, and it’s likely more regressive behavior will continue in certain corners of the U.S. It’s short-sighted, for a number of reasons.
This is nothing new; it’s been playing out this way for decades. Most homebuyers don’t know much, if anything, about building and/or energy codes. Most builders don’t want to build above-code homes. If municipalities aren’t going to at least hold the line, if not require a higher level of housing stock, then we’ll have to hope that homebuyers are informed enough to choose homes that would warrant being called “new” and not “new-ish”.
Mike Collignon, author of our Code Watch and Housing 2.0 Program Manager, is Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Green Builder Coalition, a not-for-profit association dedicated to amplifying the voice of green builders and professionals to drive advocacy and education for more sustainable homebuilding practices.
Kansas City Homebuyers to Face Higher Energy Costs
Once a beacon of energy efficiency in the Midwest, Kansas City’s “light” is now a little dimmer.
In early February, the Kansas City, MO City Council narrowly voted to walk back their progressive energy code at the behest of local builders. Mayor Quinton Lucas could have stopped the passage of Ordinance 260144, but declined. At a time when the U.S. is prioritizing dirtier, more expensive energy sources, this could spell big trouble for the wallets of Kansas City homebuyers.
The ordinance rolls back the wall insulation R-values from 30 to 19. This puts new homes in KC closer to what would be required in climate zone 3. As you can see on the climate zone map from the 2021 IECC (below), Kansas City is closer to climate zone 5 than 3 (though thanks to climate change, climate zone 3 is slowly moving north, so maybe they were just thinking really far ahead).
They also did away with duct testing “when all ductwork is located entirely within the building thermal envelope”. On the surface, this might seem ok, but they reduced the wall insulation requirements. Therefore, a less insulated home plus potentially leaky ducts means a less efficient system… and higher energy costs.
Finally, they raised the ERI compliance number to 70 for smaller homes (less than 2,000 s.f.) and 65 for larger homes. Kansas City allows the same two numbers when using HERS as a compliance path, which is not a model code compliance path. In the model 2021 IECC, there are no numbers remotely close to 65 (let alone 70) in the ERI table. In fact, an ERI of 70 is 20% higher (for larger homes) and almost 30% higher (for smaller homes) than the ERI score of 54 that the model code calls for in climate zone 4.
And if we pretend that these homes are located in climate zone 3, which is where their new wall insulation says they are, the delta gets even more egregious. The model code ERI compliance number is 51, which is a far cry from 65 or 70. In what industry do newer products perform worse on day 1 than they did just 2 years prior?
As you might expect, the local and state builders are ecstatic about this new development. In NAHB’s celebratory press release, they claimed that “the disastrous rollout of the unamended 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) caused home building in the city to grind to a halt”. Merriam Webster defines “halt” as: “to bring to a stop”, “discontinue”, “terminate” and “end.”
Apparently, the KCHBA doesn’t read that version of the dictionary, because to them, halt apparently means 442 single-family permits between January and October 2025, or 375 such permits between January and October 2024 (Kansas City Star, Jan. 2026).
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time hyperbolic language has come out of Kansas City. Some readers of this space might recall the outrageous claim made by a KC builder, to a U.S. House of Representatives’ subcommittee no less, that energy codes added over $30,000 to the cost of a new home.
A more objective source of information might be the Federal Reserve, which tracks building permits for 1-unit structures for the Kansas City metro area on a monthly basis. As you can see below, there are hundreds of single-family structures being built every month. (This does not include multi-unit structures, which can also house people and, depending on criteria, could be governed by the 2021 IECC. More on that in a moment.)
If we look at the chart for multi-unit housing structures, we can see that, depending on the month, there have been between 400 and 1,600 new housing starts each month since the 2021 IECC went into effect in KC. If that’s what “halt” means, then someone needs to have a conversation with Merriam and/or Webster.
Kansas City isn’t the only location rolling back their energy codes. Other examples have been shared in this space, and it’s likely more regressive behavior will continue in certain corners of the U.S. It’s short-sighted, for a number of reasons.
This is nothing new; it’s been playing out this way for decades. Most homebuyers don’t know much, if anything, about building and/or energy codes. Most builders don’t want to build above-code homes. If municipalities aren’t going to at least hold the line, if not require a higher level of housing stock, then we’ll have to hope that homebuyers are informed enough to choose homes that would warrant being called “new” and not “new-ish”.
By Mike Collignon
Mike Collignon, author of our Code Watch and Housing 2.0 Program Manager, is Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Green Builder Coalition, a not-for-profit association dedicated to amplifying the voice of green builders and professionals to drive advocacy and education for more sustainable homebuilding practices.Also Read