Colorado Green Real Estate

Green Home Renovation Market Forecasts is Great News for Home Buyers & Sellers

I published a blog a couple of days ago where I questioned the availability of data on green housing market growth. In that post I pointed out how the data we do have is scattered about and not well segmented. I also mentioned that green home renovation data was almost non-existent.

Well, I may have spoken too soon on that one. There is some green home renovation market data floating around but like the new construction data it is not well segmented or organized. Even still, I thought I’d present what I do have.

The green home renovation data below was gathered from several press releases and news reports about a new market analytics report titled, “The Green Building Retrofit, & Renovation SmartMarket Report,” jointly published by McGraw-Hill Construction and the U.S. Green Building Council. I haven’t purchased the report but I may at some point in the future. For now, I’ll share the few morsels of green home renovation market information I was able to extract from the press releases.

• New buildings represent 2.5% of the U.S. building market, the rest are existing structures

• Green home building currently makes up 5-9% of the retrofit and renovation market

• Current market size for green home renovation and building retrofit is $2-4 Billion for major project, with smaller projects unaccounted for

• Green home renovation market is projected to grow by 20-30% by 2014 with a market size of $10-15 Billion

• Major green home renovation and building retrofit market shift will occur in 10-15 years when green retrofits and renovations will have a 50% market share.

• 92% of green home renovation projects included energy-efficient mechanical and electrical systems.

Granted, this isn’t much in terms of information, but does give us some indication of the future of green home renovation potential. I like to say the greenest house is the one that is already built. With nearly 130 million homes across the country, it’s fair to say the green home renovation market has enormous potential.

This is great news for both home buyers and sellers because it reinforces the notion that green homes are moving toward mainstream housing market. This means there will be more green homes to choose from across price ranges and geographical areas enabling prospective homeowners to make better more informed buying decisions.

Many people don’t realize, for example, that it is possible to obtain a single loan to purchase a home and perform green renovations prior to moving in thus creating a healthier, more comfortable home with lower energy costs.

If you or someone you know is interested in purchasing a home in the Denver or Boulder areas of Colorado, I can help. I can assist with all types of home buying and selling transactions including locating, evaluating, buying and selling homes with green features and benefits.

Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions.

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