When people think of buying a “green home”, for some reason they immediately see rows and rows of dollar signs. They envision writing over their entire savings, their first born child, and their favorite sports car in order to afford the house. Nothing could be further from the truth! There are many affordable green homes, particularly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In fact, there are several ways you should be thinking about “affordability”. Let’s not just pay attention to the sticker price of a house, but let’s instead analyze a little further.
The first price point people associate with “affordability” when it comes to home is the actual sticker price of the home. What will you ultimately be paying for the house? Surprisingly, green homes are extremely affordable. Their price tag is usually identical to their non-green counterparts, if not a little increased. The average price of a green home is around $250,000. This means that green homes should be affordable to most income brackets. Energy efficient homes can start as low as $140,000. While it’s true that some green homes can be somewhat expensive, the reason these homes are more pricey are probably in large part due to the custom designs within the home or the size of the home. Obviously, homes that have much more living space, or land, will be more expensive. If your home has a bowling alley, a custom game room, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool, the price tag goes up!
In terms of affordability, there is another way to view the price you will pay for a green home. While you may end up paying a larger up-front price for a green home (as opposed to a regular home), the total money saved from reducing your energy costs during the lifetime of the home will deduct from the price tag. This is especially true of larger families who will tend to use more energy resources. If you purchase a home for $400,000, but save $100,000 or more during the home’s lifetime (meaning, the amount of time you live in the household), then the total price paid for the home is $300,000 or lower. You can see how this directly affects your concept of “affordability”. The challenge, in this scenario, would be whether or not you have the up-front capital available to make the initial purchase of the home.
Lastly, in looking at another view of affordability, we must analyze the cost of energy/living space. If you have a larger family, and you need more space, but are worried you can’t afford the cost of a larger home, a green home may be the perfect solution for you. With larger homes come two additional costs. The first, is the sticker price of the home. This will always be higher than smaller homes (of similar quality). The second is the cost of energy for such a large living space. This is often underestimated by homeowners. The cost of heating a house with 5,000 square feet of living space is much more substantial than that of a home of 2,000 square feet. With green homes, typically the cost of energy per square foot is less, if not equal, to that of a smaller non-green home.
Consider all of these facts when deciding whether or not you can afford a green home. If you are doubtful of your options, feel free to reach out to us and we can see what we can do to help you purchase a home that helps you save money in the long run.
