Our city only incorporated 20 years ago ... in 1991. Last track homes here, were built a decade earlier. Until now. Hearing that kaufman broad had purchased one of the last few remaining large pieces of land - and that they'd built model homes already ... we drove up the hill to check it out (ergo ... cheep date). Green insulation ... green flooring ... green paint ... argon filled double pane glass everywhere ... but my favorite was in the garage. Not only did KB homes install solar assisted water heaters ... not only did they install PV systems (that's a 5kW inverter) ... as you can see - my better half is modeling your pre-installed 240V charger cable ... manufactured by Schneider/EVlink ... so now ... all you need is your brand new PiP!! Way cool. I'd heard KB Homes were building eco friendly homes in San Diego ... but no news about here, 70 miles north. They were a bit on the pricey side ... $650K-$775 (2,800 Sq' - 3,200 Sq') ... but not too high considering it's a pricey area. .
*Cough splutter* (This message was brought to you from a <$100k 5 bedroom house. Suddenly my energy bill doesn't seem quite so high.)
I can have my pick of 4-5 BR 3000 sq. ft. houses in my father's home town in upstate NY, for about $25,000. Because it's economically depressed, has been so for decades, and will remain so. Population there has been shrinking since WWII. By contrast, here, in NoVA, the price seems not unreasonable, depending. So the price, by itself, tells little. Location, location, location. Any way you could give comparables? Roughly similarly situated, roughly similar sized houses, without the green add-ons? It's interesting enough that they thought these would sell. But it would be more interesting still to see what's the premium, if any, for the "greenness"? By my estimate, what you mentioned, in that climate, is now better-than-break-even over the life of the house, if factory installed. Plus-or-minus the built-in plug-in for the car. (Which is like a $2K item, so big deal.) Solar water, grid-connect PV with no battery backup, I think that's all pretty much at break-even. Paint and flooring, eh, that's just trim. Windows, nobody does anything less than that in new construction anyway. I'll bet that the PV hookup is just for the model. In the rest, they'll spend the ~$100 to put in the 240V line -- because it's a son-of-a-gun to retrofit the line. (I own a retrofit plug-in, I should know.) Absolutely makes sense to wire it up now. But no way they install the charger on spec in every house. In the model, they're showing you that you're charger-ready. They'd be wasting resources to put the charger hardware in every house and let it sit unused in most. Still, it's extremely cool that they are marketing them this way. Even if it's strictly high-end. I mean, really -- would you rather have granite countertops, or make your own electricity? Gold-plated fixtures in the master bath, or solar water heater? Surely there's a high-end market for this.
Where I live, conventional homes are 1/4 that for three-bath, three-bedroom at less than 20 years old, which is still new enough not to have old-house issues. I like the eco design features, but that's outside my housing budget. Consider this: You could find a house for 100K less and buy a Tesla Roadster, or Signature Model S!
However, unless you are a very high mileage driver your money will have greater impact on energy consumption by investing it in your home.
...no room for shelves in that garage with all the electronics panels! Would think these kind of features are important for CA due to lack of electric supply. Seeing more of these features elsewhere too though.
Tom - I remember when we went to the 2009 Gen III reveal in Detroit. Every night I could hear gun shots off in the distance. $500 is a LOT of money for some of those homes, even though they have HUGE views. Of course, that's because 99% of the neighborhoods have been bulldozed. 'she-who-must-be-obeyed' (pictured in the OP) is in the realty biz. She's estimating that the cost (not including all the standards such as central vacume, granite counters, 100% 8' doors, crown molding etc etc) of each of the 3 models is about $50K (plus or minus $5K ... PV systems range from 2kW to 5kW) above what they'd normally go for ... not that big a percentage of the over all price of a new home in either of the surrounding cities.
Five hundred sounds like a weekly mortgage payment, and 25 grand sounds like part of a down payment. I love that garage. Needs more bicycles, though.
