National Green Building Award's Luxury Home of the Year by Solaire Homebuilders of Bend, Ore.

Sales Agents, Appraisers Underestimate Value of Green

Professionals with expertise in green building sales and marketing attending the National Green Building Conference in Dallas on May 8-10 reported that they are seeing steady progress in educating real estate appraisers and sales agents to recognize the added value of homes that can save energy, promote comfort and indoor air quality and go easy on the environment.

However, at a time when builders in general are encountering difficult appraisal problems because of slow sales and surging forecloses, finding appraisers who know how to make suitable property comparisons to provide accurate valuations of green homes is particularly challenging, they said. ...

NAHB Guide Finds More Cities Rolling Back Impact Fees

Seeing a significant decline in their impact fee revenues in 2008 and 2009, local jurisdictions nationwide are considering impact fee moratoria, reductions and rollbacks as a strategy for stimulating the local economy during the current downturn and encouraging the production of affordable housing, according to NAHB’s Land Development Services Department.

For example, the city of Fremont, Calif. decided in April to lower its impact fees by 75% in an effort to attract more residential construction and business to the area. ...

Even in tough times, the phones kept ringing with new member pledges.

Membership Day Brings in 5,055 New Members in Tough Times

The tough housing market did not deter federation members and local associations from recruiting 5,055 new members during NAHB’s National Membership Day on May 19.

“We are surprised and pleased with the membership results of this year’s drive,” said Ed Brady, of Brady Homes in Bloomington, Ill. and the 2009 NAHB membership chairman. “We consider the real victory to be the high participation and high energy we saw this year. Our members are no less committed today than they have been to cultivating a strong local membership.”

“With member retention a key focus for every local association, it’s important to recognize all the members who participated in the drive for their dogged efforts,” said William Deiss, NAHB’s executive director of membership. “The Spikes who recruited more than 5,000 new members this year hold the keys to helping us actively engage these newcomers in the culture and benefits of membership in our federation.” ...

Nation's Building News Will Not Be Published on June 1

Nation's Building News will not be published on June 1. Regular weekly publication will resume June 8.