"Help The Planet, Save Money & Brag About It"

I’m recently divorced and looking to buy a new house for myself and my daughter. I have only just started looking into this and would appreciate any help that anyone can point me at.

What features are generally available to make a home more ‘green’? I am looking to buy a new house rather than one built some time ago.

How much would I be looking to pay for a house that is specifically designed with such things as solar panels?

Would I have to have my house built to my specs for this? This is an option.

There are so many variables that it is hard to give a specific price. A general rule of thumb, is that if you take a typical house of the same square footage and add 40% and this woudl be the cost of a “very sustainable” home.

Now I know that sounds like alot, but if you work it out on paper it is usually the difference between paying a $1000 monthly mortgage and $300 per month in energy cost, or a $1200 monthly mortgage and less than $100 per month in energy cost.

Either way you are paying about the same, accept with the green home you have a better resale value and the freedom to not be dependant on “the man” (electric company, gas company, etc..) so inflation plays a very small role in the future.

I have to say that I really like this idea. I see things going to he!! in a hand basket so fast, that I really would like to be more self reliant. I fully believe that we are not all that far away from oil shortages and ultimately from running out of fossil fuels, and I would like to be able to survive when that time comes.

Thank you admin. It really does seem possible if only I can get my mortgage company to agree. The numbers come out right in the long term, if only I can get financing for it.

Hey Singleagain,

You might want to look into a “ home efficiency mortgage ” because it will give you about 15% more buying power if you are specifically buying a “green” house.

Check out that link too, it has all sorts of good info on tax credits, state incentives and much more. In other words, when you buy green you get money back from the government.

thats always a good thing.

Adam

Thank you for the link, and for your time too. Tax breaks are always nice yes! It was a great incentive when I was looking at a new vehicle for us, and I am sure that if more people looked at the numbers they would be more likely to look into carbon neutral housing.

Thanks for the information on Tax incentives on a green home.  I would like to be more self reliant on energy usage also.  We recently spent 2 months in our home without electricty and it took some getting use to but we did it.  The hardest part was learning to shop for food without a refrigerater.  We learned to cook and entertain ourselves without a TV. 

Our fore fathers didn’t have electricty, gas or cars.  One day a month not using these resouces could save alot of natural resources.