Growing interest among consumers interested in green building and remodeling may be the one bright spot in the currently dismal homebuilding market, said participants in a teleconference this week that focused on recent research by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB).
The April 16 discussion, which centered on two surveys conducted for NAHB by McGraw-Hill Construction, shed light not only on the numbers of homeowners interested in green building, but where they learn about green building, what they consider green building to be, and how much they are willing to pay for it. It also touched on consumer’s concern that there aren’t enough green builders out there, particularly in the East.
Consumer demand for green homes has been driven by owner satisfaction.
“Satisfaction with green homes was phenomenal,” said Harvey Bernstein, McGraw-Hill’s vice president of industry analytics, alliances and strategic initiatives, citing the results of the survey of 147,000 homeowners who identified their homes as “green” based on criteria that included energy use, indoor environment and other qualities. Eighty-five percent of the respondents said they were more satisfied with their new green homes than they had been with traditionally-built homes, and 34 percent said they were “much more satisfied.”
Consumers were also willing to pay more — on average, up to $18,000 more — for green features, said Bernstein. The survey set the average price of a green home at $310,000, compared to $292,000 for a traditionally-built home.
The research backs up consumer sentiment voiced “loud and clear” in focus groups NAHB has conducted over the last three years, said Gopal Ahluwalia, NAHB’s vice president of research.
“Consumers say, ‘I’m willing to sacrifice. I’m willing to spend a little bit more to get a house that is healthier and energy-efficient,” Ahluwalia said. Energy efficiency, he said, was the top concern of consumers.
The remodeling survey indicated nearly 40 percent of homeowners who have recently completed home renovations chose to use green products or materials. New windows were most often cited, making up 47 percent of the green remodels, with upgraded HVAC systems second.
Michael Strong, a remodeler and custom homebuilder in Houston, TX, noted that what consumers call “green” remodeling is really good building solutions to the age-old quest for healthy and comfortable homes.
Strong, a builder for 17 years, said he reached this conclusion during a phone conversation with a customer asking for a “green” remodel that would remedy the drafts, uneven heating and noise penetration in her older home.
“People have called for years with the same complaints about their houses,” Strong said. “It’s just that today, finally, in 2007 we’ve got a label we can put around it. We can finally say, ‘I want green remodeling done.’”
Overall, consumers asking for green remodeling know what they want, and they know how far they want to go, Strong said.
“They want to pick their preferred shade of green,” Strong said. “They don’t want to be talked down to, and they don’t need a lot of engineering or what I call data points,” he said. “We try to keep it simple and avoid lots of the geek talk.”
According to the NAHB research, 28 percent of homeowners learn what they know about green homes by word-of-mouth; 20 percent said they learned about them on television. And like the builders they hire, homeowners learn about new green products not through retailers or trade contractors, but from the manufacturers.
“Retailers aren’t driving it,” Strong said. “For us to get the information we need, we have to go all the way up the supply chain to the manufacturer. And homeowners have to do the same thing.”
Strong urged caution among builders jumping aboard the consumer green building movement as a business differentiator in a sluggish market.
“Taking advantage of the green opportunity out there is not something you do overnight,” he said. “It requires an across-the-board assessment of your building practices and your motivations. It’s a strategic decision, a long-term decision.”
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