Buyers Choose Beauty Over Energy Efficiency

Home buyers would rather spend money to improve the look of a kitchen than pay for less-conspicuous technology that cuts their utility bills, national home builders say.
By: Nick Zieminski: REALTOR® Magazine Online
Home buyers would rather improve the look of a kitchen than pay for less-conspicuous technology that cuts their utility bills, an Atlanta home builder says.

Ian McCarthy, CEO of Beazer Homes USA Inc., Atlanta, spoke at the Reuters Real Estate Summit in New York. Beazer is specializing in building solar homes. In a Sacramento, Calif., project, the company teamed up with a local utility to install panels that generate electricity during the day and send extra power back to the grid, balancing out the energy that residents used in the evening and at night.

"What we're trying to do is produce zero-energy homes," McCarthy says.

Other builders listening to the Beazer presentation agreed with McCarthy’s conclusion that most home buyers aren’t ready to spend much money on energy-saving technology.

“Zilch,” says Robert Toll, CEO of luxury home builder, Toll Brothers Inc. “So far, I’ve gotten one call in the last year about solar panels. The buyer is not willing to trade granite for efficiency.”