Last week, Rich and Steve were in studio with Leslie Kellogg, an Energy Smart Real Estate Specialist, and  Chris Aguir from RISE Engineering. RISE has been helping Rhode Islanders reduce energy usage for three decades and Leslie and Chris gave some really good tips for people to save money on their energy bills, add value to their house, and to use these improvements to distinguish those properties  when they are on the market.

National Grid offers a program where they will send out a Rise engineer to give an energy audit. Homeowners are often reluctant to receive an energy audit because they think it will be some long, expensive process. This is not true, an energy audit involves a whole house approach in assessing the performance of a building with regard to energy consumption and efficiency   For info and to schedule appointments for an in home assessment call: 888-633-7947, or visit Thinksmartthinkgreen.com.  

 There are also tax credits for making energy efficient improvements to your home, and once you have made these improvements, the EPA and DOE provide a variety of marketing materials to help educate homeowners about Home Performance with ENERGY STAR.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

This is a great time to improve the energy efficiency of your home and not only save on utility bills but also increase the value of your home. According to The National Association of Home Builders, 64% of respondents prefer a “green built home.”  And according to NAR’s most recent homebuyers survey 65% of those responding indicated that an energy-efficient home was “very important”.  

       Last night the Senate cleared legislation regarding the extension of the first time homebuyer credit to reach the President this week, and it is virtually certain that President Obama will sign the legislative package which contains an expansion of unemployment benefits as well as the tax changes.

 The homebuyer tax credit would be extended through April 30, 2010 and a new provision allows for move-up buyers to be eligible for a credit as well.  The $8,000 maximum first-time credit will continue and couples with income up to $225,000 will be eligible, nearly $55,000 above existing guidelines. A new $6,500 maximum credit would also be available to move-up homeowners who have lived in their current residence for five of the prior eight years.

In response to previous abuse of the tax credit, an investigation by the Treasury Department found nearly 600 children, aged four and up- had received $627,000 in tax credits. The Internal Revenue Service will have greater oversight to eliminate fraud.
The legislation also contains a provision supported by the National Association of Home Builders to help larger companies with net operating losses this year or in 2008, allowing companies to carry back losses to five years for either 2008-2009, and the income cap has been removed. Presently, Companies can carry back losses for two years, and income caps limited the credit to smaller companies, so this will be a boom for larger cash strapped builders.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

There was about a 12 month supply of single family homes on the market nationally when the first time homebuyer tax credit was enacted, now that’s down to about an 8 month supply.   Hopefully, the extension of the credit will help to work through the inventory to a more balanced market that will be able to sustain its own recovery.