CUSTOM HOME magazine’s sister publication, EcoHome magazine, recently released the results of its first “National Economic Survey” of green and non-green home construction pros and their perceptions of the green building market.
The survey’s 451 respondents reported on the current state of their home building markets, as well as the strength and impact of green home building within the overall market. Of all the respondents, 36.4 percent described their overall home building markets as being 20 percent less healthy than they were three years ago. A very few (8.9 percent) said their markets are about the same as three years ago, while 7.1 percent reported that their markets are actually growing and getting stronger. Only 22.5 percent of non-green pros consider their markets to be strong for green building; the majority (47.2 percent) believe their markets are not yet strong enough but are growing.
More than 64 percent of respondents self-identified as builders or designers of green homes, and nearly 45 percent of them say they participate in a local, regional, and/or national green building certification program, while 37.3 percent reported they do not currently participate in any such programs but plan to do so. Nearly 71 percent of non-green pros agreed that now is a good time to enter the green building segment and 64 percent said they either are planning to start building green homes within the next two years or are exploring the possibility.
The majority (60.4 percent) of the green pros said they believe that green building is helping their businesses survive the current market conditions, but only 38 percent think that green builders have fared better than non-green builders in their markets over the past three years. These respondents cited a variety of reasons they think green builders are doing better, including consumer demand for lower utility bills, media coverage and social pressure, better-educated consumers, and effective builder marketing.
The majority of both green and non-green pros think the demand for green homes will increase over the next five years. Moreover, nearly 72 percent of green pros and more than 57 percent of non-green pros think that green building will lead all other trends when the housing industry recovers from the downturn.
Interestingly, about 22 percent of green pros and 16.4 percent of non-green pros said they would support a national green building standard or code as long as it was a mandatory regulation. Another 66.7 percent of green pros and 54.3 percent of non-green pros said they would support such a standard or code only if it was voluntary.
Green pros also shared their predictions of the greatest challenges for the green building industry in the next 10 years. Opinions ranged from educating the consumer, convincing clients of the importance of “invisible” systems, a shortage of qualified personnel and the cost of employing them, and verifying green product claims to defining “green building,” testing the longevity of new green products, keeping the cost of green materials down, and staying current on new technologies.
To download the full results of the survey, click here.
