At the Tomorrow.City USA conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, HUD Secretary Scott Turner shared how the Department is working to make it easier to build housing and easier to buy a home. Key takeaways:

Opportunity Zones — now permanent

• Made permanent under the One Big Beautiful Bill (July 2025), with a new 30% step-up in basis for rural investments — and 40% of all Opportunity Zones are in rural areas
• Results to date: ~$100 billion invested in distressed urban, tribal, and rural communities; ~400,000 new housing units; ~500,000 jobs created; and an estimated 1 million people lifted out of poverty
• Treasury has released ~25,000 eligible census tracts for Opportunity Zones 2.0, effective in January; roughly 6,000 will be designated by governors and certified by Treasury

Cutting regulatory costs

• Regulations now add roughly $100,000 to the cost of a single-family home — HUD is tearing down red tape to make it easier for builders to build
• Rolled back the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, returning zoning control and flexibility to local communities

Expanding access to mortgages

• A new executive order aims to increase lending competition and bring community banks and hometown lenders back to the table, so creditworthy low- and moderate-income and rural families can access mortgages
• Goal: lower the average age of first-time homebuyers, which now stands at 40

Manufactured and modular housing

• Highlighted as a major solution to the housing supply gap — about 22 million Americans already live in manufactured housing, and today's designs and technology are a far cry from the past

HUD refocused on its mission

• Taking inventory of every program office, cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, and embracing innovation and technology to serve the American people

Source: "Opportunity Zones Are Shaping Tomorrow.City," HUDchannel