It's The Custom

An energy efficient home is an important investment, and for some of our clients it is the biggest investment their family will make. When we discuss our high performance homes, we keep our main focus on the cost savings benefits because energy efficient homes are unique in that there is a return on investment.

However, the “icing on the cake” if you will, is that our high performance homes are also considered, and many times are certified, green. This means they have all of the environmental advantages, for both the indoor living environment and the environment at large, that come by way of green building philosophies such as energy efficiency, durability, and superior indoor air quality.

When meeting with our clients, however, every one includes some modicum of green in their home plans – be it from the use of Energy STAR lighting and appliances throughout, to a full caulk and seal package you find with many new homes, our clients often come to us asking for a least some green feature if not a entire green home.

According to a recent survey by Green Builder Magazine, our clients aren’t unique in their requests. In fact, according to their survey results, the majority of people, nearly 60%, consider themselves “green” in some regard. And an overwhelming majority – almost 80%! – said that a green rating or credential would be an important consideration if they were in the market for a home. And when it comes to improvements or renovations, the respondents also showed they knew their stuff when it comes to energy efficiency. The top five home improvement projects the respondents stated they would embark on were all related to improving air flow and insulation, including projects such as sealing the house, adding insulation, and upgrading the HVAC system.

You can see more results from the survey by visiting the article on greenbuildermag.com, and taken all together it is great news to see that more and more people are beginning to see the overwhelming advantages to green building.

Like most builders, I can report the market is definitely picking up. And I’ve had several meetings recently with couples who want to build a new custom home.

What makes Hibbs Homes different is the fact we build high performance, or “green”, homes. Many are built and verified to meet various performance standards, including the National Green Building Standard (ICC-700), Energy Star, DOE’s Challenge Home, and more. This means our clients end up with homes that are more efficient, durable, require less maintenance, and provide better indoor air quality than standard, built-to-code homes.

While it is true that a high performance home can cost more to build, one money saving advantage is that they also qualify for Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM). Simply put, an EEM is a mortgage that is specifically for homeowners who want to buy or build a high performance home. Because of lower monthly utility and operating costs, EEM’s allow you to stretch your debt to income ratios, which means you could qualify for a larger loan amount to buy a better, more efficient home than if you were purchasing a standard home.

EEM’s were first introduced by Congress in 1992 through a pilot program launched in five states. In 1995, the program was expanded nationally. A recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that because of energy efficient mortgages, nearly 7% more families would be able to qualify for a mortgage. Another study by the Appraisal Journal shows that the market value of a home increases $20 for every $1 decrease in the annual energy costs.

And in case you are wondering, if you plan on renovating your home and Energy Improvement Mortgage (EIM) is available for St Louis homeowners.

There are several sites where you can learn more about EEM’s and EIM’s. A few we recommend are the Energy STAR website, RESNET.us, and the Housing and Urban Development website. The illustration below also has a great example to show you what we mean:

This image from HUD.gov illustrates how an EEM works.

We truly believe that because of all of the financial incentives available to homeowners today, there has never been a better time to buy or build a new, energy efficient home. Mortgage rates are still at historic lows, and you can increase that buying power even more with a high performance home and an Energy Efficient Mortgage.

Cutting the amount you spend on your daily living and home maintenance expenses is certainly one of the big advantages of building an energy efficient home, but these aren’t the only financial incentives for those make energy efficiency a priority when they buy or build a new home. There are many mortgage and tax incentives out there to help you save money when buying your new home, and they make energy efficient living more appealing to homeowners who want to spend their money wisely.

In fact, there are so many that knowing what is available can be complicated, so Residential Energy Network Services, or RESNET, recently put together a great infographic sorting through it all, and we wanted to pass it along to you, our savvy custom home building clients.