Inside RE News_HomeAid1212

The editors of the magazine described the winning entry as a “zero-net-energy performance (home) at an affordable price.”

The winning home is based upon the way NTB constructed the home in Stapleton.

Zero-energy means the home produces as much energy as it uses, on average, over the course of a year. Green Builder focused on the home at 8146 E. 35th Ave., but NTB offers the zero-energy package on any new single-family home, including the new development at Castlewood Ranch in Castle Rock.

In the story about the zero-energy home in this month’s edition (headlined “Way Above Average”), Green Builder said NTB was able to achieve zero energy by focusing on “low-tech essentials.”

http://insiderealestatenews.com/2012/12/new-town-wins-award-for-zero-energy-home/

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/06-28-12-09-57-vacation-homes-are-back-other-trends-and-trendlets-from-the-national-association-of-real-estate-editors-confab/

	Inside Real Estate News Colorado’s Real Estate News Source

NAREE panel goes green

By John Rebchook

June 22, 2012

Many consumers support the idea of energy saving features in homes in theory. But in practice, many don’t want to pay for it.

About 10 percent of consumers are “core-value” customers who are environmentally committed and sustainability is part of their identity, said Eric Snider, president and CEO of Lifestory Research, based in Orange County, Calif.

Snider spoke on Thursday at a “Growing Green Homes in the New Economy” panel at a conference at the Brown Palace Hotel sponsored by the National Association of Real Estate Editors today.

He said consumers will show an increased willingness to adopt such things as solar power, but that doesn’t mean they want to pay for it, unless they are part of that 10 percent core-group.

“They will tell you one thing and will behave in a completely different way,” Snider said.

“Our forecast is not positive,” for consumers paying for green features, even though it will save them money over time.

His company’s research also found that it isn’t the younger generation embracing green with the most fervor. Lifestyle’s research found that 50 percent of the people 25 to 30 years old support the idea of being green, while 65 percent of those who in the 60- to 75-age range support green behavior.

But Gene Myers, president of the Denver-based New Town Builders, said that is not his experience with buyers.

He said on a macro-level, he thinks that Snider is correct, but when he can present energy payoffs that start in the first month of ownership, they are sold.

Myers said New Town is the best-selling builder in Stapleton, “and I am competing against eight other builders,” in the most popular master-planned community in Denver.

And when Myers returns to buyers after they have lived in their homes for a while, they are totally devoted to saving energy.

He was at a homeowner meeting Wednesday night at Stapleton, where every home New Town builds has a solar photovoltaic system and an energy monitor.

“Honey, I noticed a spike in our energy-use yesterday,” one man said to his wife. “That’s because I ran the drier,” she explained.

Myers said solar is what draws consumers to the home.

“Thicker insulation isn’t sexy,” Myers said. “Within in our niche, it is a powerful sales tool.”

He said that in 2010 New Town sold 42 homes, last year it sold 89 and last month it sold 19.

“We’re not a national builder; we really do not worry about national trends,” Myers said. “All real estate is local. In our market, solar is viable.”

Myers noted that a lot of builders his size did not survive the latest downturn.

“A lot of mid-sized builders are gone. I honestly don’t think we would have survived if not for our solar and other green features.”

Have a news tip or real estate story idea? Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com.

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/04/denver_transportation_mile_high_connects.php

http://www.homechannelnews.com/article/denver-lumber-honored-us-senator?utm_source=GoogleNews&utm_medium=Syndication&utm_campaign=ManualSitemap

Meet the Neighbors!

John Keene knows all about energy-efficient homes.

He has been a certified EcoBroker since 2006, giving him the expertise to educate his clients about their homes and spot the sustainable features in his own house.

“A lot of it has to do with environmental conditions,” he said.

Keene moved to Stapleton in 2006 with his wife, Maureen, and their daughter, Mia. The family rented and then moved into New Town Builders’ Solaris Collection this year.

http://www.stapletondenver.com/community/whats-happening/meet-neighbors-the-keenes

Needles on lodgepole pine trees turn a rust red as they die off after being kill by pine beetles near Frisco, Colo., on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

First Posted: 9/29/11 05:18 PM ET Updated: 9/29/11 05:18 PM ET

Whether used for heat, electricity, or construction the trees in the nearly 3 million acres of Colorado forest that have been rocked by the mountain pine bark beetle are proving to be a valuable resource.

Newsweek estimates that the beetle will leave Colorado with a deforested area about the size of Rhode Island — that’s a lot of surplus wood that might otherwise just go to waste.

And some home builders are starting to take advantage of it. 7News reports that a Denver home building company, New Town Builders, is using those beetle-killed trees in the new homes they are constructing. Using the dead trees could help reduce fire danger in areas with a glut of dead trees, help new growth once the trees are removed and give a boost to the ailing Colo. lumber industry, New Town Builders says.

Colorado’s sawmills lose money extracting the beetle-killed trees because of antiquated contracts with the Forest Service and Department of Agriculture, Huffington Post reported.

Fox31 reports that Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) has been working on solutions for industries that are affected by the beetle killed trees like sawmills and home builders for more than a decade. And he hopes that other home builders like New Town will get involved.

The wood could also be useful in providing a new source of heat. In Aspen, the Roaring Fork Biomass Consortium has been studying the potential to use the dead trees and other biomass for energy in the local area, according to The Associated Press. There may be as much as 6,000 tons of dry wood that could be burned in low oxygen to produce methane, which can be burned for heat in the local Aspen area.

The Denver Post reports that there is already a wood biomass project in the planning stages in Eagle County which would consume 1200 acres of waste wood that in years past has just been burned by the Forest Service. However, the Roaring Fork Biomass Consortium did point out that biomass power in Colorado may not be as cost effective as generating biomass heat because the timber in Colorado is so dry and energy costs are already lower in such an oil- and gas-rich state.