A portion of the cost of a new house is due to government regulations. It may be as little as 20 percent, or as much as 35 percent.

Art Castle, the executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County (HBA), says of that spread, “Where do you stop assigning cost?” He says some regulatory costs are easily identified; many more are hidden.

Whether it is the property tax paid by the land developer prior to the home’s sale, or the county’s impact fee for roads, parks and schools, it is eventually folded into the price, and the county considers the sum total to be the value of the home, effecting the future tax assessment, as well as those of similar properties in the area.

Building permits and utility hook-up fees will be added onto virtually every home. Whatever the costs of doing business for the developer or contractor, including Business and Occupation taxes or Department of Labor and Industry taxes, will be added into the price. Mandated safety equipment and procedures are added in (as would the loss of time for injury-causing accidents, of course).

Castle mentions the restriction of land use under the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA). He says, “GMA creates artificial scarcity, adding to the cost of land without adding value.”

Castle says that the cost of lumber for a house may include a tariff paid to bring Canadian lumber into the US – a regulation intended to protect the US lumber industry, nevertheless, paid for by the consumer.

Everyone wants clean air and water, and we love the trees, salmon and wild animals sharing our planet. Environmental regulations add to the cost of a home. Castle guesses maybe 10 percent of developers violate well-intentioned rules, while the other 90 percent suffer through the onerous regulatory mess — and all homebuyers pay.

During construction, something must be done to protect the waterways from storm-water runoff. If a muddy flow enters a stream, it can wreak havoc on the health of that stream and the river into which it empties, and so on. So, although one will not likely see salmon swimming on a building lot, the salmon are protected by temporary silt fences, hay on the ground, and gravel on the temporary driveway. The expense of all these, in both time and material, are factored into the price of a house.

On a more permanent basis, there are regulations to control storm-water runoff. It may mean taking the water from the roof to the gutters to the downspouts, and dispersing it into a gravel-filled ditch. Likely an environmental engineer has been to the property to make this determination. That’s a regulatory cost.

Castle indicates that regulations are not always bad, but also states they are not always logical, either. One local builder tells of having to put up a silt fence all the way around a construction site – including uphill from the work area.

Wetlands on one portion of the developed neighborhood might be filled in, but will have to be mitigated by purchasing land and creating new wetlands elsewhere to help cleanse groundwater as it re-enters the aquifer.

An eagle’s nest on the property can delay construction, and time is money.

A time delay may also be caused waiting for permits or inspections.

It all costs in the end — and the buyer pays for it all.