So who is making homes renewable ready these days?  Well – the renewable-ready checklists are a mandatory feature of the DOE Challenge Home program (www.buildings.energy.gov) – which recognizes builders for creating zero net-energy ready homes.  Renewable-readiness is also finding its way into codes like the California’s 2013 Title 24 code.  It’s an concept which makes sense, and makes today’s new homes ready to respond to the energy needs of the future.

A study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Institute for Market Transformation, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting energy efficiency, portrays the risk for mortgage default is 1/3^rd less likely for energy efficiency, ENERGY STAR homes.  The report is the first academic study linking energy efficient homes and mortgage payments.   While energy efficiency is being accepted with more regularity among consumers and across industries, “the lack of broad consideration in potential energy savings in the mortgage underwriting process” is still a major hurdle.  The conclusions of this study help to prove the long standing belief that energy efficient homeowners, while saving money on their utility bills, can use those savings and put them towards their mortgage.   The report provides another source of ammunition for lenders and policymaker promoting energy efficiency.  To read more about the report visit http://www.imt.org/news/the-current/owners-of-efficient-homes-less-likely-to-default.

As working from home becomes more popular and feasible, home office space has become more important to Americans.

On average, and as expected, most of the respondents felt it was important to have a dedicated office space in the design of a home.  Many people enjoy working from their homes and in this busy world we live in today, cutting out a commute to the office certainly helps.  Now you can make breakfast, pack the kids lunch, have a cup of coffee, and start your work day all without walking out the door.

Most likely as a result of their experience and savvy with all the web is capable of, it was the younger generation who, on average, felt it was more important to have office space in the home.  However, interestingly there was a significant amount of respondents over 65 who felt the same way.  Not surprisingly, we also found that as income level increased so did the desire for dedicated office space.  Many jobs require more time and dedication and responsibilities oftentimes carry over outside the office.

This will be our last post from this portion of our Revisioning the American Dream project.  Please be sure to check back for more updates and to learn how you can be apart of our next survey!

Nowadays, almost every home has a computer in it.  Furthermore, many Americans have the ability to work from home.  How does this affect how people would value dedicated home office space?

From the feedback we received, respondents were somewhat divided on the importance of having a large dedicated dining room space.  We asked them to rate the importance of dining room space on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highly important and 1 being not important at all.  The average response was a 5.

The importance of dining room space did not seem to vary based on the preference for a larger or smaller home.  The difference was almost indistinguishable.  Characteristics such as age, income, and total household members did not seem to affect responses either.

Next week, we’ll talk about the importance of the dedicated home office space.  This will be our final blog on The Space, so be sure to check back for that and for some information on how you can be a part of our next survey as part of our project on Revisioning the American Dream!

Are builders best served by trying to compete on $ per square foot in this environment?

DOE Challenge Home offers a very different approach for builder success in the “new normal” housing market.  Thanks to support from Connecticut Light & Power, Newport and DOE staff presented how to successfully go to market with Zero Net-Energy Ready Homes last week in CT.  Builders, architects, energy raters, and engineers took part in the training session – which is among the first in a national training blitz which Newport/DOE are launching over the next year.

For information on upcoming trainings please visit www.building.energy.gov/challenge

From The Fire Protection Research Foundation Blog:

In 2008, the Foundation conducted a comprehensive assessment of the installed cost of home fire sprinklers across the U.S.

NFPA has re-commissioned the study to review current costs against the 2008 benchmark study to better understand the relationship between adoptions, various elements of cost (installation, materials), and total costs, how efficiency in design or installation may be introduced, and other innovations.

Click here to go to the Fire Protection Research Foundation’s blog post.

Newport Partners conducted the 2008 study on behalf of the Research Foundation and has been called upon to conduct the updated study as well. Newport’s final report for the updated study is expected to be complete in the Fall of 2013.

The chart shows what you might have expected to see.  Those that would prefer less yard space were more likely to prefer a smaller home.  In addition, those that would prefer more yard space were more likely to prefer a larger home.

The chart also shows the following:

Those who would prefer less yard space were more likely to also prefer a smaller home than those who would prefer more yard space were to prefer a larger home.

The last series of blogs will focus on two specific rooms, the dining room and the home office.  How important is it to have a large dedicated dining room space?  With more people working from home, is a home office becoming increasingly important?

Well, that is now becoming a major problem in the housing market.  Buyers and sellers both agree that energy efficient features increase the interest and the likelihood of potential purchase of a home, however in most multiple listing services (MLSs) there is no “green” field or section for these high performance features.  While most new homes come with enrgy certifications and labels, old homes do not.  Consumers find it difficult to access information on “green” features and compare homes based on energy efficient systems.

Additionally, appraisers are rarely trained to properly value “green” homes and energy efficiency.  Without the proper training many appraisers tend to ignore or undervalue certain energy efficient systems that may have been installed.  Many times when trying to find “comps”, recently sold comparable homes, they are unable to distinguish between homes with energy upgrades and those without.

The “green” home market is certainly on the rise; however it is necessary to get all parties on the same page.  While it is encouraging to see the high priority being placed on these homes, we need to have everyone catch up to the times, which will help all sectors of the housing market.

If you don’t know what we’re talking about, check out the previous blog post.  We asked you, the reader, what you thought would be the most common response as to why someone would prefer less yard space.

And the answer is…

A) LESS TIME SPENT MAINTAINING THE PROPERTY!

This seems to make sense, given that the most commonly noted response we observed for why people wanted to downsize their home was to spend less time cleaning and maintaining.

Interestingly enough, less than 15 percent of all respondents that would prefer less yard space cited ‘being more environmentally conscious’ as the reason why.  This is somewhat surprising given the interest many people have in living in more environmentally sustainable ways.

The following chart looks at the rationale for preferring less yard space by age range.  It’s important to note that respondents who preferred less yard space and were over the age of 65 were less likely to cite the benefit of having to spend less time maintaining the property than younger respondents.

We also asked respondents why they’d prefer more yard space.  The most commonly noted response was that they wanted more space for outdoor activities.  The interest in having more space for outdoor activities did not seem to vary based on the number of household members under the age of 18.

Next week, we’ll look at the relationship between preferences for a larger or smaller home and more or less yard space.  Do people that would prefer a smaller home prefer less yard space too?  We’ll find out next week!

WikiHouse is a community library of 3D home design models that can be downloaded and used to create a set of “cutting” files, essentially puzzle pieces for the home.  Builders can use their own building materials and the design can be cut into pieces using technologies such as 3D printers and CNC machines.  The pieces are assembled like a large 3D puzzle, without the need for construction skills or power tools, using wedge and peg connections and mallets.  The lightweight frames are lifted into place, like traditional barn raising, ending up with the basic mold of a house that windows, wiring, insulation, skin, plumbing, etc. can be added on to.  Two or three people can construct one of these small homes in about a day.

A few prototypes are being experimented with around the world and there is a move to set up construction teams in the shanty towns ofBrazil.   As well as in slums around the world the WikiHouse could also be applied to disaster relief housing and rebuilding scenarios.  The future of the WikiHouse may be a way off but the ideas and experiments being developed presently are a good sign of things to come.

For more on WikiHouse visit this website:

http://www.wikihouse.cc/