US housing is older than ever—but local permitting systems can reduce significant repairs

While it’s well-documented that regulatory conflicts are fueling the new construction pipeline, a new report offers a rare look at how zoning regulation may affect existing homes.

An analysis from the Common Sense Institute (CSI) reviewed 2.8 million building permit records across Arizona and found that obtaining a permit adds nearly 23 days to typical residential project completion times—a burden that can make even a routine job a lengthy and expensive process.

It is a worrying result especially given the state of the nation’s housing. The median owner-occupied home is now 42 years old, up from 31 in 2005, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

As homes get older, maintenance is more important to keeping homes livable and less about chasing trends. That change is already visible—nearly 49 million US households reported at least one in need of repair in the latest American housing survey, and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank estimates the housing repair backlog at $198.4 billion.

Although the CSI analysis is limited to one state, it raises a question with national implications: As America’s housing stock grows, are local permitting systems becoming more difficult to maintain?

This isn’t an HGTV update—it’s an update that keeps homes alive

Remodeling may bring to mind images of home improvement shows, but these projects are increasingly devoted to necessary repairs, according to Sophia Wedeen, senior research analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

By 2023, nearly half of all home improvement spending (49%, or $197 billion) went on replacements that affect the safety and functionality of the home—such as roofs, windows, HVAC and other critical items, according to the center..

“When people think about remodeling, the kitchen and bath may come to mind,” Wedeen told Realtor.com®.

“But a lot of this investment is by homeowners investing in basic maintenance, replacing them [critical] systems and equipment … and they are all important improvements that are part of what keeps a house in a safe and livable state.”

And as the home gets older, spending shifts from optional upgrades to other necessities.

Wedeen notes that owners of homes built before 1940 spend nearly half of their dollars on remodeling structural components, systems, and equipment, compared to 37% for homes built in 2010 and 9% for homes built in 2020 or later.

“So we’re really seeing that as homes age, the focus of homeowner spending on those homes shifts to areas of need,” said Wedeen. “It has a huge impact on the market.”

Arizona shows how permits can add time and money to necessary repairs

As more of America’s money approaches necessary reforms, Arizona’s findings suggest that regulatory burdens may add time and cost to that process.

“Permitting and regulatory approval processes sometimes play a major role in shaping the cost, time, and feasibility of construction and infrastructure projects,” wrote the report’s authors, Glenn Farley, director of policy and research at CSI, and Thomas Young, senior economist at CSI.

“Indeed, academic and policy research suggests that complex or ineffective permitting requirements can significantly increase project costs,” they added.

In their conclusion, the report’s findings cite a variety of requirements across Arizona’s 106 property control and permitting jurisdictions. Each of those state areas has its own codes, procedures, and approval times, as well as fees—ranging from $200 to more than $600 depending on the project and capacity.

To understand how those differences can impact important repairs, it’s helpful to follow the timeline of HVAC repairs or replacements across the state—a project that can arguably be considered important given Arizona’s climate.

Although 91% of states require a permit for this type of project, the time to get that permit can range from six days to more than 17 days, depending on where the homeowner is located in the state. Fees for such a permit can also vary widely—from as little as $126 to nearly $300, depending on the size of the system and how jurisdictions calculate the fees, according to CSI research.

“These costs come not only from direct compliance costs, but also from delays, administrative uncertainty, and disparate approval processes in many jurisdictions,” Farley and Young added.

For cash-strapped homeowners, that can be frustrating. For homeowners who are already struggling to pay for repairs, it can make or break a significant repair.

Where else is this seen

Arizona is one of the few places where researchers have measured how permitting delays affect general home improvement. Elsewhere, the evidence is more mixed—but the same basic tension manifests itself in different ways.

In California, for example, allowing the delay has been blamed for stopping Los Angeles from recovering from the wildfires that destroyed more than 12,000 homes by early 2025.

In New York – the state with the oldest houses with an age of 64, according to NAHB – New York City has approximately 50,000 ghost houses because the cost of renovating those units exceeds the potential income from the rent they will be able to generate.

Part of the problem, according to landlords, is restrictive rent control laws that limit how much a landlord can raise rents after spending a fortune to improve the properties. But with the same calculations, it is the same as the prohibitive cost of making these improvements.

Lead paint is a good example. Removing lead paint from a two-bedroom apartment can cost up to $20,000, while related compliance inspections and inspections can add hundreds or thousands more before any extensive repair work can begin.

Also, it is important to realize how much these types of improvements are needed. Lead paint and lead-contaminated dust pose serious health risks to residents, including the potential for lead poisoning if not properly managed.

The extra costs hit low-income homeowners the hardest

The added time and expense of regulatory conflict is especially important for homeowners with little wiggle room.

Home improvement costs are already widely separated from income. By 2023, homeowners in the lowest income quintile will spend less than a third on improvements and repairs as homeowners in the highest income quintile, according to Harvard’s JCHS.

“Home improvements and repairs are critical to maintaining decent living conditions,” Wedeen said, noting that basic investments can be important for both financial stability and a safe home stay.

The result is a cycle that’s hard to break: Families with fewer resources are more likely to live in homes with serious repair needs, but they’re also the ones who can’t afford the work to keep those problems from getting worse.

The housing crisis isn’t just about building more houses—it’s about fixing the ones we have

The housing shortage currently stands at 4.03 million homes—a sharp increase from last year as housing starts to decline and housing starts accelerate, according to the latest survey from Realtor.com.

That makes new construction more urgent, but it also makes homes in America more valuable than ever.

As the housing stock ages, preserving existing homes will require millions in routine but critical repairs. Some of that work will be voluntary, but much of it will not be, and that means the policy response must be two-pronged.

First is money. Home repair assistance remains fragmented and underfunded, as repair needs are widespread and concentrated among families who can’t afford them.

Wedeen points to the growing momentum around programs like Pennsylvania’s Whole Home Repairs Program and the bipartisan Whole Home Repairs Act, but said the current system remains a work of federal, local, community, and community sector programs where access often depends on where the homeowner lives and whether they qualify.

The second is the process. CSI’s findings suggest that some enabling systems can go faster without changing security standards.

Standard, repetitive projects may be an easy way to expedite other requests, allowing more resources to be devoted to timely reviews of complex work.

They are the types of solutions that will become increasingly important in the coming decades. As cities work to accelerate new construction to keep housing affordable, they will also need to ask whether local laws are making it more difficult—or more expensive—for homeowners to keep their existing homes safe, livable, and on the market.