Most argue that green homes cost more without considering the performance and value benefits. Studies have shown that green homes use less energy and water and sell for more.
This home has high-performance systems and renewable energy, which helps the operating costs stay very low throughout the year. If you are building a new high-end home, the house’s structure and systems must be upgraded, not just the finishes.
In this green home, we upgraded the insulation and designed a geothermal HVAC system. We also added a solar thermal system since that was the best option at the time for water heating. To help with irrigation, we captured the rainwater and stored it in a 5000-gallon underground cistern.
We have been promoting high-performance green homes for years. Now there are many more of them on the market. This is a large enough sample size to show that they do indeed sell for more. This is good news for SawHorse clients. All of our homes are built to higher quality performance standards. This means you get the benefit of lower operating costs during the time you enjoy the home. You also get a higher ROI if you sell your home.
The national association of home builders put an article on their website to help support our claim. Here are some of the key points taken directly from their article:
- Property value analysis rated homes sold for 2.7% more than comparable unrated homes.
- Better-rated homes sold for 3-5% more than lesser-rated homes.
- From the loan performance analysis, the default risk of rated homes is equivalent to unrated homes once borrower and underwriting characteristics are considered.
- However, loans in the high debt-to-income (DTI) bucket (45% and above) with ratings appear to have a lower delinquency rate than unrated homes.
