Owners of energy-efficient homes are 32 percent less likely to default
A new study produced by IMT and the UNC Center for Community Capital shows the risk of mortgage default is one-third lower for owners of ENERGY STAR homes. The risk of default falls even further among homes that exceed ENERGY STAR’s efficiency requirements.
Home Energy Efficiency and Mortgage Risks, by Roberto Quercia, Nikhil Kaza, and Chao Yue Tian of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the first academic study to assess the links between residential energy efficiency and mortgage performance.
It uses a sample of 71,000 home loans from 38 states and the District of Columbia, all derived from CoreLogic’s mortgage database. The sample is restricted to single-family, owner-occupied houses whose loans originated during 2002-2012.
About 35 percent of the houses in the sample were ENERGY STAR certified for efficiency, with the rest forming a control group. A mortgage holder on an ENERGY STAR residence is also one-quarter less likely to prepay. Since lenders consider the risks of both default and prepayment, these loans are potentially more valuable to them.
On March 19, IMT hosted briefings for the press and for Congressional staff on the report findings. Pictured above is report co-author Nikhil Kaza presenting the research.
Utilities’ Guide to Data Access for Building Benchmarking
A new report, Utilities’ Guide to Data Access for Building Benchmarking, explains how local utilities can improve access to whole-building energy and water consumption data to facilitate benchmarking.
The report identifies best practices for utilities to provide building operators with automated access to the data, while maintaining appropriate confidentiality protections. It documents benefits of these practices for utilities and their customers.
The report was commissioned by the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub (EEB Hub) and authored by IMT’s Andrea Krukowski and Cliff Majersik.
Leveraging building energy codes to maximize savings
As states look to utilities to play an active role in supporting building energy codes, a new Cadmus report developed by IMT, the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership (NEEP), and IEE (an institute of the Edison Foundation) provides guidance for how state regulatory commissions and energy offices can best develop and evaluate such efforts.
The report, Attributing Building Energy Code Savings to Energy Efficiency Programs, offers in-depth guidance on program options, evaluation protocol, and regulatory considerations for efficiency program administrators and policymakers.
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IMT welcomes Stephanie Burns
Stephanie joined IMT this month as a Program Associate supporting activities across several program areas, with a focus on quantitative research.
Before joining IMT, Stephanie assisted macroeconomic analyses at the Congressional Budget Office, where she contributed to the agency's baseline projections of housing market indicators.
She also served as a research assistant at Child Trends, a nonprofit center that studies issues related to child well-being. There, she worked with clients from the National Center for Education Statistics to analyze and disseminate findings from international assessments of education.
Stephanie holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Mary Washington.
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IMT welcomes Todd Sims
Todd joined IMT this month as an intern supporting code compliance outreach efforts to a wide variety of industry stakeholders. A cornerstone of this effort is a coordinated national campaign aimed at raising the profile of code compliance.
Before joining IMT in 2013, Todd helped to launch Green Building Focus, serving as Director of Marketing + New Media. There, he gained significant experience building relationships between built environment professionals, elected officials, and other stakeholders. Most recently, Todd has served as a senior policy and outreach advisor for Matt Varilek's congressional campaign.
Todd is a native of Birmingham, Ala., and has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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