Making Housing Happen: Governor Ferguson announces progress on new housing accelerator

OLYMPIA — The Washington State Department of Commerce has delivered its first report to the Legislature on a housing accelerator project successfully proposed by Governor Bob Ferguson. The Washington Accelerator for Residential Production (WARP) presents preliminary options to speed up housing production, lower costs and remove unnecessary regulations.  

Governor Feguson proposed WARP in his first supplemental budget. The accelerator builds on Governor Ferguson’s January 2025 Executive Order — signed minutes after taking office — directing state agencies to review all regulations that impact housing, permitting and construction and identify any provision that can be streamlined, deferred or eliminated.  

“When I was running for Governor, I visited all 39 counties, and by far, the issue I heard about the most was housing.” Governor Ferguson said. “That’s why it’s been one of my top priorities since day one of my administration. We’ve made historic investments in building more housing and making housing more affordable. This report is the next step in building a framework for efficient, effective regulation that lets us build more housing of all kinds.” 

Read the preliminary report.

Commerce is developing a state housing accelerator framework to accomplish the objectives of the Governor’s Executive Order and to cut barriers to building homes for ownership and rent, identify the main drivers of construction costs, shorten development timelines and raise housing production statewide.  

“When homes cost too much and take too long to build, families pay for it in higher rents, longer commutes and fewer chances to own a home,” said Commerce Interim Director Sarah Clifthorne. “WARP is how we get on the same page about what is slowing down building so we can work together to remove barriers to creating more housing.”  

Since taking office, Governor Ferguson has signed more than 50 housing related laws and invested nearly $1 billion into affordable housing. 

Washington state has continued to make strides in policy reform and prioritizing housing investments.  Between April 2025 and March 2026, Washington added 41,000 housing units, according to survey data from the Office of Financial Management. Multi-family units accounted for 62% of that growth, and 69% of those units were built in one of the state’s five largest metropolitan counties — Clark, King, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane. More is still needed to meet the needs of Washingtonians, which is where the WARP report comes in.  

What’s in the preliminary report  

The WARP report describes the framework Commerce is using to examine key steps of housing development at the state level: planning, infrastructure and land, project design and permitting, financing, construction, and sales and operations. For each step, it lists the barriers and cost drivers stakeholders have identified and potential state actions for consideration.  

Potential state actions include:  

• Reducing fragmentation across agencies and encouraging consistency and predictability in development regulations across jurisdictions 

• Prioritizing technical assistance and funding for local governments, allowing them to offer low-cost loans to developers 

• Investing public dollars in infrastructure needs to support growth  

• Bolstering funding for affordable housing development and simplifying grant contracting processes 

• Supporting modular and other offsite manufacturing  

• Offering incentives to offset development costs to local governments and developers  

The report also includes:  

• An overview of more than 20 studies and reports from the past decade  

• A status update on state agency responses to Governor Ferguson’s Executive Order 25-02  

• A summary of housing-related laws passed since 2019  

• Top recommendations from the first three stakeholder topic meetings on affordable housing funding, infrastructure and housing data and accountability  

“Builders, local governments and housing providers are telling us costs are high, timelines are long and funding is hard to count on,” said Anne Fritzel, housing section manager in Commerce’s Growth Management Services unit and WARP project lead. “The recommendations in this report come from people who do this work every day. Over the next few months, we’ll continue to listen, research, distill what the state can do and bring forward a list of actions to make the biggest difference.”  

How to get involved  

Commerce is holding topic meetings with local governments, builders, developers, lenders, housing advocates, tenants and others through February 2027. Upcoming WARP topics are:  

• Regulations and permitting — Dec. 3, 2026  

• Innovative housing types — Jan. 6, 2027  

• Financing, insurance, real estate and taxes — Jan. 27, 2027  

• Construction costs — Feb. 10, 2027  

 Draft recommendations from each meeting are posted on the WARP webpage for public comment. Anyone can send comments or ideas to WARP@commerce.wa.gov or sign up for project updates at the Washington Accelerator for Residential Production webpage.   

Commerce will submit the final report with prioritized legislative and funding recommendations to the Legislature by June 30, 2027.  

Contact

Allison Sundell, media relations manager
(206) 503-0449

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