Eem Holdings

The hot topic in the real estate is green homes. People are building, buying and renovating existing homes to make them more energy efficient, healthy and have less impact on the environment. If it is a relatively recent trend in housing, he started in commercial buildings of more than two decades as owners seek ways to reduce utility bills up. The field has rapidly expanded beyond the desire to incorporate energy materials, techniques and products that conserve scarce resources, recycling materials, and avoid using toxic ingredients and processes. Since products are better and cheaper and materials became available, green or ecological construction to the spread of residential construction.

Green building is becoming the standard for new commercial projects, but it is unclear how many homes are actually being built with energy saving features and environmentally friendly because the statistics still confuse the commercial and residential markets. In 2006, McGraw Hill Construction estimates that green building by this year represent 10 percent of all buildings and the president of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) stated in April that green building has contributed 178 billion dollars Gross Domestic Product during the previous eight years. But in any case, we do not know if residential construction accounts for 20 percent or 90 percent of these figures. There is anecdotal evidence, however, that green building is a growth factor in both new residential construction and remodeling. For example, the State of California has adopted the first state-level "code green building and 6,500 manufacturers have signed to build Energy Star certified homes. USGBC LEED program, which originally followed the commercial construction Green now offers five levels of certification in housing. We can also assume that, however large green building is home today, it will grow, how much is still unknown.

So far, there has not been much new funding green homes, in part because of a special mortgage would be an exaggeration to many purchases. Many green buildings only reflects the new technologies applied to old products like Low-E (low emission) coating on the glass window or formaldehyde-free kitchen cabinets. If a green house is just a regular house with ecological characteristics of a mortgage "plain vanilla" work perfectly.

However, some environmentally friendly homes are funding issues. A subset of very green houses like domes, yurts, bag houses and land are growing in popularity, but many projects do not take off because the construction methods chosen, while valid, evaluators confused or lenders fear. Even ordinary houses which have a single unique feature as a geothermal HVAC system or integrated solar roofing shingles can run afoul of underwriting guidelines. Construction loans are also a problem. Think of all the usual problems associated with the development financing the construction of single family homes and four if the house is really green. Building codes have not yet caught up with green technology - there is even one year, until new regulations in force in California - and not many loan officers who must sign the construction progress .

There are mortgages available green, but insofar as they are not known. FHA offers a ride to his 203 (b) and 203 (k) loan guidelines, which allows the recognition of cost savings from environmental improvements. The Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) allows the borrower to include the cost of certain improvements over the green on the mortgage approved without the benefit of higher loan amount or the deposit based on it. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and VA mortgages offer similar concessions, and Energy Star, a joint effort between the EPA and the Department of Energy has initiated a pilot program that, in addition to the features of the FHA.