Three recent studies that address the advantages of energy efficiency on home ownership could have a significant impact on the way buyers finance home purchases.
Buoyed by rising home prices throughout much of the nation, both single-family and multifamily housing starts are expected to post double-digit gains in 2013 compared with last year.
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 units in March, according to newly released figures from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The National Fenestration Rating Council approved changes to its NFRC 100 and NFRC 200 standards, allowing certain shading devices to be rated for U-factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is working on new building standards after discovering previously unknown indoor air pollutants.
The pace of housing starts in March tipped a milestone, posting an annual rate of 1.04 million units, an increase of 7 percent from February and up 47 percent from a year earlier.
The New Mexico State Court of Appeals struck down an attempt to repeal energy-efficient building codes. The original decision to roll back the building codes came from a suggestion by Gov. Susana Martinez’s small business task force.
A training program supported by the International Code Council teaches high school students the importance of building codes and provides graduates with an advantage in the job market.
Following seven consecutive months of gains, the list of improving U.S. housing markets remained virtually unchanged in April, with 273 metros on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI).
The American National Standards Institute, ANSI, recently approved the 2012 ICC 700 National Green Building Standard, the first update to the standard since the original edition.
