The California master building code, set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014, includes a few changes that could push automated, open-standards-based demand response into the mass market.

This is down slightly from the 263 metros that made the list in June but is more than triple the number of metros that were on the index in July 2012.

A Portland, Ore.-based nonprofit group recently showcased 13 extremely energy-efficient homes in four Northwest states. The homes were designed to use 30 percent less energy than a traditional house.

The unemployment rate in the construction sector in May was the lowest it has been in five years, which could signal a coming worker shortage, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.

Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose for a third consecutive month in May, posting a 2.1 percent gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 476,000 units.

The increased cost to build underground safe rooms is the major reason that codes in tornado-prone areas of the Midwest do not require them.

Success in constructing net-zero homes in the Northwest has sparked debate over how green codes should be incorporated.

The Home Building Lending Improvement Act of 2013 would discourage lenders from calling construction loans whose payments are current and establish regulatory guidelines to allow the banking industry to restore lending for viable home building projects.

The city has already awarded three vacant city-owned sites on streets lined with old-line two- and three-family homes in the Roxbury and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods to teams of developers and architects.