There are a pile of housing regulations—federal, state, local that have a major impact on housing costs.
My electrician briefed me on some of the electrical requirements these days and it was mind-blowing.
While houses today are safer than they used to be we have paid a high price for it—probably overkill in many cases.
The NEC in 1980 NEC looked like a pamphlet. Most of the changes between then and 1999 were specifying means and methods that led to safer installations. Starting in 1999 many of the changes have been driven by companies lobbying the NFPA to enforce their “fix” to a problem.
With that said, starting in 1980, the number of residential electrical fires continues to drop to the tune of about 1000 per year and the total number of residences has gone up by roughly 0.8 mil per year. From an underwriting standpoint the ROI is miserable but the “don’t burn to death” factor is pretty persuasive.