Finding an Energy Efficient Home in Nevada County

September 16, 2008 – A client asked me a few days ago, "How can we find energy-efficient homes that are on the market today?" These folks are concerned about the costs of home ownership, mainly energy costs, in the current and future economic environment.

Title 24, Part 6 of the California Code of Regulations deals with energy efficiency standards for residential and non-residential buildings. This set of regulations has been in effect and regularly updated since 1978, in response to a legislative mandate to reduce California’s energy consumption. The updates generally provide the opportunity to consider and adopt new energy efficient building methods and materials.

Since the oil embargoes of the early and late 1970s, a growing awareness of the need to conserve has led to the current set of regulations and the available technologies to comply. From 2x6 framing for added insulation in the early days to low-e windows and highly efficient solar PV power systems today, this effort has paid off for owners and tenants of buildings in California.

So, back to our clients. I did a basic search of our MLS to answer their question, and found that of the 906 single-family residential properties in the Nevada county MLS database; only 17 of them were marketed as having energy-efficient features. Only 17? That’s less than 2% of the available listings. It seems very likely that the actual fraction of homes with energy-efficient features is much higher than that!

Chances are that if home sellers and their agents gave careful consideration to this idea, many more homes could be accurately marketed as energy-efficient relative to pre-1978 standards or lack of them. Considering the importance of conservation now and in the future, and the growing number of homebuyers that are insisting on these features, it certainly makes sense for home sellers to document and market these features! Most homes built in the last 10 years in California are relatively feature-rich, simply due to compliance with Title 24. The latest update, scheduled for adoption in July 2009, will mandate even tighter standards.

If you are looking for energy efficient features in your next home, there are several approaches to accomplishing this goal. Buying a newer home is the quickest path, yet it is possible to locate older homes that were thoughtfully built years or decades ago that are suitable for an energy efficiency upgrade during a remodel. New loan products are becoming available that promote energy efficiency by offering a lower rate or fee structure for buyers of newer homes or older homes that will be energy-upgraded using the loan proceeds.

Nevada County has been a leader in energy consciousness for some time and many older homes can be found that have the "bones" for such a transformation. The materials and methods for these makeovers are too numerous to list and are left to homebuyers and their chosen team of professionals. The key point is awareness of existing features and accurately marketing them.

If you are a homebuyer or homeowner interested in energy efficiency in your next purchase or sale, please contact me for a discussion of how these ideas impact your own situation.