Katharine Wroth, the story editor at Grist, posted a blurb on her blog this morning that caught my attention.
Finish what you didn’t start
As housing starts slump, green building gains steamAmid news of an epic slump in housing starts — they fell 15.5 percent in December, to the lowest rate on record — this tidy
round-up of studies says green building will save us! OK, it doesn’t quite say that, but it does show widespread support for green building, including for those sexy retrofits. Which is either my new band name or a column I’ll be writing this year. Stay tuned.
She’s a great writer and on the ball. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of her blog here.
GreenWorks Realty released it’s December (Q4) numbers a couple of days ago. It is compiled from Northwest Multiple Listing Service Sales information. Environmentally certified homes (either Built Green, Energy Star, or LEED) are gaining in market share, most recently calculated to be nearly 30% of all homes built between September 2007 and December 2008 (in Seattle). Their square footage comes in slightly smaller, they sell for more (6% higher in the latest report) and spend almost 30% less time on the market. Green homes are a draw to buyers today and those who seek these homes out are committed to buying green and move quickly to get the homes they want. The report also includes numbers for other King county cities, and some numbers for Everett and Snohomish county.
You can read our entire report, called “Green Certified and Non-Certified New Home Sales”. which includes many charts and graphs for people who like illustrations, here.