February 20th, 2019

The housing market is starting to turn a little green. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that roughly 39% of all energy consumption in the country was in the residential/commercial sectors. After witnessing many major natural disasters within the past few years, people today are becoming much more environmentally conscious, which has led to some states making pretty drastic moves to decrease energy consumption. The leading state in green housing energy is California, which in December instituted a new law requiring that all newly constructed homes and residential building up to 3 stories high must be built with solar panels, starting in 2020. CA’s goal is to reduce its carbon footprint by building more net-zero energy houses. As research has shown, solar panels are able to produce all the energy a household needs given the right design and right consumption patterns.

Have you talked to your purchase borrowers about the monetary and environmental benefits of green energy? If not, it might be a good conversation to start having, as the trend is expected to overflow into many other states over the coming years.