Green Development in Seattle

This was my view on my sunrise bicycle commute over Lake Washington this morning. You will notice the other cyclist on the left side of this photo, also commuting in by bicycle early this morning.

I love living where I can easily commute by bicycle or by other means of alternate transportation. Seattle is especially attuned to environmental awareness, and it is becoming a more and more bike-friendly city. Riding a bicycle to work or play is good for the environment, good exercise, much more affordable and fun than driving alone.

It is also a good example of green development. If you live close to where you work, you save money and save the earth. You pollute less and exercise more.

I have been taking a lot of real estate classes recently on Low Impact Development (LID), Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), and green development. All are closely aligned to living a more comfortable and sustainable life.

My most recent class was this past Friday, understanding the new listing input fields for green development that have been incorporated into the standard NWMLS real estate forms. The NWMLS is recognizing that green development is the wave of the future. Collecting this data through their standard forms will provide better information about the premium that consumers are willing to pay for built-green construction. This data will also make it easier for clients to search for homes that meet their environmental standards.

Fiona Douglas-Hamilton is the lead instructor for the majority of the green development classes that have been offered to the real estate and appraisal professionals in the Seattle Area. Many of her courses are offered free through the generous sponsorship of supporters such as Green Canopy Homes. For more information on green development education for real estate professionals, please visit Fiona's website at www.SeecSolutions.com.

Happy Investing!

"Green" Development

Energy Values Training by Fiona Douglas-Hamilton
January 24, 2014
Mt Baker Community Center

This credit hour class was sponsored by Green Canopy Homes, Puget Sound Energy, and SEEC,LLC, companies that support green residential building.

Homeowners typically underestimate the operating costs of their homes. Energy efficiency is the hot, new homebuyer driver. It is not as important as location, but is becoming a more important factor.

The class was designed to understand the role that energy efficiency plays in the comfort of the home, and to understand energy efficiency ratings.

Energy usage impacts a home in various health, comfort and safety considerations:
air quality
warmth
comfort
draftiness
cost
repairs
maintenance
ventilation

The greatest use of energy in our homes is for space heating (45%), water heating is the next largest at 18%.

A high performance home has 7 features:
Tight construction
Fresh air ventilation
Improved insulation
"Right-sized" HVAC
Pressure-balance
Interior Moisture Management
Combustion safety

Building science focuses on building materials and building envelope systems.

Air escapes from a house in many different ways. Windows lose 10%, floors wall and ceilings lose 31%, fireplaces lose 14%, and ducts lose 15%, doors lose 11% and plumbing 13% of the total air leakage.

The heat stack of a typical house, leaks air that draws in air from around and under the house. This noxious air may include radon gases, fumes from toxics stored below or in an attached garage, fecal air from animals in the crawl space, etc. Yuck!

Kevin Peterson from PSE spoke to the class as well, as another sponsor of this class. There are free tools to use as incentives to encourage energy conservation. Free home energy audits are available, and lights can be switched out to CFLs. Homeowners need to make this request for a free HomePrint analysis.

Contractor Alliance Network (prescreened by PSE) is available to refer homeowners to approved contractors who can do work to make the home more energy-efficient.
kevin.peterson@pse.com

Measures of energy-efficiency:
Miles Per Gallon is EPA Fuel Economy measurement

HERS (Home Energy Rating System) Index is the most widely recognized energy score (outside of WA state). But brokers can now list the HERS score on NWMLS forms. The scoring system goes from 0-150, with the lower score being the more energy efficient.

WA is now in a drought, with only 30% of the winter snowpack right now.

Energy Performance Score (EPS) has been piloted in existing homes market in WA state, and is licensed through Earth Advantage in more than 18 states. It measures total annual energy consumption. EPS makes this possible to compare scores between various houses of different sizes.

Community PowerWorks and Sustainable Works are two resources for doing energy retrofitting of existing homes in Seattle.

Mortgage industry typically only takes into account principal and interest, taxes and insurance to measure affordability - but not the hidden costs of utilities, location and maintenance.

Energy costs in a car-centric society may consume 46% of a homeowner's costs. Energy costs may be even higher as a percentage of a low-income household. This is one reason why walk scores and transit scores are becoming more and more important.

77% of homebuyers are looking for energy efficiency in a home purchase.

Green Canopy Homes is one of the players in the Seattle marketplace focusing on green development. They are buying distressed and fixer-upper properties in good neighborhoods, and remodeling for energy efficiency. The price of an energy efficient house must be +/- 2% of market value for comparable properties, in order to sell quickly. Days on Market for Green Canopy Home sales is about half of the average DOM in Seattle.

Home performance labeling is controversial for builders and for the National Association of Realtors, as it makes it more difficult to sell homes that do not compare well on energy usage.

Energy Efficiency loans offered by Umpqua Bank, FHA 203(K), possibly Guild Mortgage.

Appraisers need better data to actually value energy-efficiency. NWMLS is now collecting some data on listings with energy scores.

Builders are now providing cost data addenda for high performance homes to identify costs for energy-efficient improvements. The Appraisal Institute also has a Green & Energy Efficient Addendum which can be completed by a builder.

There is a website to calculate present value on photovoltaic (solar) energy.

Happy (Green) Investing!

FREE Energy Efficiency Resources

As mentioned in my previous blogs, I have been taking a good deal of training in green development, low-impact development, and energy efficiency. There are some great resources out there to help homeowners, landlords and investors save on their energy costs, and mitigate damage to the environment.

Here are a few good resources to check out:

PSE will do a FREE HomePrint assessment for customers, to check energy loss in the house, and make recommendations for improvements.

www.dsireusa.org will identify all utility rebates available to homeowners.

The true costs of owning a home include the hidden costs connected to location, and maintenance costs, in addition to utility costs. Find out how much it costs for you to commute from where you live. For details, see http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/walk-score-launches-transit-score-and-commute-reports-100740844.html

Be smart about the costs of owning a house, beyond its purchase price!

Happy investing!