More Green Homes Hit Greater Boston Market
Better insulation and solar panels are becoming more appealing to buyers.
Eco-friendly homes have buyers across Greater Boston seeing green as they dream of ditching sky-high electric and heating bills after an epic winter.
Developers in Boston and the suburbs are scrambling to keep up with the demand, retrofitting existing homes and building air-tight, heavily-insulated, and solar-panel-bedecked homes from the ground up.
“In the early days people didn’t know you could do it in New England,’’ said Carter Scott, president of Ayer-based Transformations, Inc., of his company’s solar-powered, super energy efficient homes. “Now a lot of people are calling to ask whether we have zero energy homes.’’
One of the newest clusters of green homes is taking shape in Roxbury’s Fort Hill section, where Urbanica E-Homes is building seven new townhouses with the latest energy efficient features and an option for solar panels as well.
The three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath townhouses range in size from 1,702 to nearly 2,000 square feet and come with a deeded parking space and secured basement storage space. Prices start in the low $600,000s and top out in the low $700,000s, said Brian Perry, a broker at Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty who is selling the units.
The Fort Hill properties feature “double insulated walls and air tight construction, high performance triple pane windows, heat recovery ventilation, efficient ductless mini split air conditioning system, energy star appliances, and low flow plumbing,’’ according to a sales pamphlet.
Buyers also have the option of buying roof solar panels for about $17,000 after tax credits, or renting a panel for $89 a month, Perry said. The panels provide the power that lights, heat, and cools the house.
“It’s a huge selling point,’’ said Perry of the money-saving features of the green homes.
The suburbs are also seeing more green homes hitting the market.
Scott’s Transformations is currently working on 100 new super energy efficient homes, which are in various stages of the planning and construction process, in areas including Harvard, Littleton, and Northampton.
They sell in the $300,000 to $400,000 range.
The homes have south-facing roofs and foot-thick walls that help keep the heat in and the cold out. Solar panels on the roof are designed to cut the electricity costs down to zero, or even enable homeowners to earn a few dollars selling power back onto the grid.
“People are understanding them better – they are coming in and asking for them now,’’ Scott said.
Even without solar panels, super-insulated homes can make a big difference.
Betsy Thiel noticed the difference right away when she moved from an older home in Concord two years ago to a condo at the new Freedom Green building at Devens, a former Army base off Route 2 that was redeveloped into commercial buildings and homes.
With thick, insulated walls, the temperature inside her condo stays fairly constant, with little need to turn up or down the heat.
“So many times when you walk into an older home you can feel the drafts within the property,’’ Thiel said. “When you walk into these properties, you feel the tightness of the buildings. There is no draft. There is nothing that comes in the window – nothing that comes in through the doors.’’
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