For the purpose of this blog lets just consider Green Building only in the price, we can discuss saving the world (or not) at a later date. We discuss how using products closer to the building site saves gas, how the home can save resources, how you can save money on your monthly costs, carbon foot print, and all the "green" terms I am sure you have heard about. I want to discuss "green money", as in building green for money.
First here is a disclaimer; I do not pretend to be an expert on Green Building, Do not pretend to be an expert on Green Money, and am not sure about how this all saves the earth. I am a GREEN Designee (took a few courses and study a little about Green).
OK so we got all of that out of the way...Lets talk about Rocky Mount NC new construction over $250,000 sold in 2010. I took out two homes, one was a new construction that was built in 2006 and bank owned, the other was built in 2007 and offered reservoir access/pool/tennis courts. So that left me with 13 new homes sold through our local MLS in 2010 over $250,000. From those 13 homes 7 are Green (or feature green/energy star upgrades), 6 offer very little green/energy star upgrades or none. The 7 homes are all built by the same builder in the same neighborhood. Let's stop and discuss this builder and neighborhood for a moment; it is in a desired area, desired school district, lots with trees, a builder with a good reputation, side walks, attractive homes, bus stop shelter in front (or gathering place), community well, sound distance to I-95, and some of the homes back up to a local semi-busy 2 lane road.
Lets talk numbers (Green Money), this builder is getting on average $144.71 while the other 6 homes sold for on average $98.58! The average new home (these 13 only) sold for $299,346 in 2010. The Green homes had an average square feet of 2007 and the non green homes had an average square feet of 3185. With that said our buyers are willing to pay almost the same price for a home with 63% less space in the home. This happened 53% of the time! I have no knowledge of why 53% of the time buyers bought a home with green features and 63% less space and I do not know if the neighborhood or the builder made a difference. What I do know is that something is working!
Is this the perfect storm (builder, location, setting, schools, timing)or is this the future of home building? Why are no other builders following with this idea? We have a few builders building some energy efficient homes here and there. We have a few builders not even trying? Is this builder smarter? Are the buyers not?
Here is my thoughts on a few of the questions I have asked. The builder was smart to build similar homes together, the Green home built in a row of non Green homes does not have the same effect (on value). The person that pays the same price for a home 63% smaller will not get a return (on value) because the other homes in the row will bring it down! The builder was smart to make the neighborhood charming (sidewalks, gathering area, leave trees in place, add brick/stone to front, etc), he was smart to build Green, and he was smart to build them all together. Now I have no knowledge if he is making a profit, but the new phase is getting ready to be paved this spring! I am pretty sure he is smart enough to keep going only if making a profit!!!
Thoughts?
