This is the last weekend of the Parade of Homes in Minnesota for the spring 2012 tour so be sure to grab your guidebook at any metro Holiday Station Store.
One of the highlights of this year’s Parade of Homes was the addition of MN Green Path homes on tour. As more and more people adopt an energy efficient attitude and builders construct eco friend homes MN Green Path certification becomes more and more important for builders and homeowners.
So what is MN Green Path?
(Roseville, MN) Most previous green programs were cumbersome and incurred up-front costs that were simply out of reach for many new home buyers. Recognizing this reality, the Builders Association of the Twin CIties (BATC) created MN Green Path to appeal across the entire spectrum of new home buyers, with an entry level that is affordable, plus advanced and master certification levels that will suit even the most ardent environmentalist. Yet all levels are third-party verified by certified RESNET raters, assuring every buyer that, no matter what level of green they have attained, they can be confident that their certification is legitimate and clearly documented in their MN Green Path Home Performance Report (HPR).
BATC’s builders also understood that to truly be accepted, the new program had to find a way to streamline reporting and verification processes. MN Green Path does that by partnering with Residential Sciences Resources LLC (RSR). This Minnesota firm has been conducting the majority of RESNET certified home energy ratings in Minnesota since 2004. They had created House Rater, proprietary software for streamlining the ratings process, which was the perfect starting point for MN Green Path. By building out an additional module to RSR’s House Rater, we are able to give builders easy, on-line access to upload documentation (like photos and receipts). Additionally, the independent ratings are fed directly into the MN Green Path programming and automatically outputs the home’s HERS and other information that is presented on the home’s HPR.
With these two problems solved, BATC’s builders are quickly accepting MN Green Path. To date, more than 100 homes are committed and over 30 have been submitted for final certification, and that’s even before the program’s launch. Already 26 different home builders have embraced MN Green Path as an important part of their sales offerings.
“We want to be able to offer a homeowner these choices,” says Steve Logan, Mattamy Homes. “We believe we are serving the buyers wants, giving them more choices, giving them the raw information, and certified information so they can make an educated decision. “
Numerous research surveys have made it clear that homeowners are seeking energy efficient options in their homes in large numbers. RCLCO, a real estate consultant and research firm, has found that 74 percent of Americans care about energy savings when they can see payback in savings within four years. MN Green Path fits this market segment perfectly.
The home building industry has taken note. McGraw-Hill Construction, a part of The McGraw-Hill Companies, recently released findings from a Green Home Builders and Remodelers Study at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) International Builders’ Show in Orlando this February. They found that green homes comprised 17 percent of the overall residential construction market in 2011 and are expected to increase five-fold by 2016, to between 29 and 38 percent of the market.
“If we can take advantage of the efficiencies being used in green building, we can give customers what they want,” says Jay Berger, Bergerbuilt Homes.
With information gathering so easy today, consumers are doing in-depth research before they ever visit a new home sales center. They come armed with questions, a lot of which are about energy and performance. And, now, they’re beginning to ask about HERS scores.
MN Green Path builders welcome those questions. To date, Green Path homes have averaged a HERS index of 59.6, well under the minimum score of 70. They’ve ranged from 69 to as low as 18, which is an incredible 82 percent more efficient than the HERS reference built-to-code home.
In the end, MN Green Path offers builders a usable, valuable tool to give them the edge in serving new home buyer needs. “MN Green Path will make a genuine difference to homeowners’ overall cost of ownership, overall cost of operating the home, and in the long run, create a far superior value,” explains Jeff Schoenwetter, JMS Custom.
And it’s a value that doesn’t end at closing. “When you buy a new house today, and go to sell it in five years,” says Ty Bruhn, Mega Homes. “people will find value in a MN Green Path Home’s efficiency.”