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Green Homes Sell!
By Claus Schafhalter | June 7, 2010
Many builders attending the National Green Building Conference stated that they have been able to sell sustainably built homes considerably faster than the traditionally built new homes that have been languishing in today’s tough market. Especially energy efficiency remains the feature most important to consumers interested in green buildings.
Good news is also that the price gap between green and standard housing is closing, helped along by tax and other incentives.
One of the problems builders have is to get the green features appraised correctly. If appraisers do not factor in the value of green features, the loan a potential buyer can get will be lower and maybe not sufficient to buy the house. And this in spite the savings in monthly expenditures, which means that borrowers are able to pay somewhat higher mortgage payments instead of spending the money on higher utility bills.
Does building green pay off? Research is still in its infancy, but there are numbers cited that each Dollar in annual energy savings adds $20 to the value of a house.
If this holds true, then we have another example where doing the right thing for our environment is also the right thing for our pocket books.
Claus Schafhalter, Management Consultant @ Sunogos
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