Housing
Gets Greener
Dallas
house earns LEED Gold: For $5 more per square-foot than a non-LEED-Gold home, the 3,200 square-foot
house described in an article on EcoHomeMagazine.com is something other than the
typical Dallas “McMansion.”
Modest-sized
new homes: 1,433
to 1,544 square feet, built at construction costs of $139 to $150 per square-foot,
the houses described in this article are about “balancing
affordability, aesthetics, and performance.”
Mortgages
& efficiency: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration don’t take
efficiency into account. The L.A. Times reported recently that there’s
legislation now before Congress called the SAVE Act, Sensible Accounting to
Value Energy. According to the article, “Here’s how it would work: Along with
traditional principal, interest, taxes and insurance (PITI) calculations,
estimated energy-consumption expenses for the house would be included as a
mandatory new underwriting factor.”
Smaller
model is more efficient: In Maryland, Camberley Homes, which is a division of Winchester Homes,
“typically builds luxury homes measuring about 3,200 square feet and up,” according to Builder magazine. But
the new, more-energy-efficient Branford model runs only 2,600 square-feet and
costs $800,000.
Solar
PV and wind turbine: A house in Kansas City, Kan. designed to earn notice and awards, incorporates
various green strategies as well as rooftop photovoltaics and a 25-foot-tall
wind turbine in the backyard. The turbine, “does very little in comparison to
the PV, but it’s an icon in that location,” according to EcoHome.
Transforming
residential: In Memphis, Tenn. the home-building industry is in the process of changing,
according to The Commercial Appeal.
Will green
features trump price? According to the Arizona Daily
Star,
“When it comes to foreclosures, new-home builders can't compete on price, said
Dan Hogan, supervisor of Tucson Electric Power Co.'s residential
energy-efficiency programs. So to lure buyers, they have to show that there's
added value with a new home. And for many builders, that means taking on
additional costs to make homes more efficient.”