News and Insights

Here are 11 good green reads from 2019 that you may have missed. 

1.    ‘Hipsturbia’: It’s What All the Cool. Suburbs Are Doing and It’s A 2020 Trend Suburban downtowns get revived using a live/work/play formula that transforms them into “hipsturbia.” Appealing to Millennials, hipsturbias include affordability and urban staples like dining, shopping, entertainment and jobs, all within a walkable distance. 

Some of your routine business challenges probably entail making green home features visible, conveying their value to clients, and getting them valued properly during the appraisal. 

Greening the housing stock is a slow, steady effort, and your contributions are critical to making progress. 
We’d like to include your work and stories in the GRC’s REsource newsletters during 2020.

It’s renewal time, and whether you’ve been a longtime GRC member or you’re new to the GRC, we have the tools, education, and networking opportunities that you need to keep building your green niche.

A new Freddie Mac study, “Energy Efficiency: Value Added to Properties and Loan Performance,” provides more evidence that energy efficiency features can boost home values. 

The study used a national random sample to examine energy efficient homes rated between 2013 and 2017. It looked at 70,000 HERS-rated homes and 6,500 homes with the DOE’s Home Energy Score. Freddie Mac also gathered data from a major credit bureau to, understand the value and the loan performance associated with energy-efficient homes to support the consideration of energy efficiency in mortgage underwriting practices.”