The Role of Energy Efficiency in Homebuying Decisions
Results of Initial Focus Group Discussions
Published Apr 11, 2006
Results of Initial Focus Group Discussions
Published Apr 11, 2006
Various government agencies, advocacy groups, researchers, and homebuilders have struggled to understand what role, if any, energy efficiency plays in home-purchase decisions, and how to make energy-efficient homes more attractive to consumers. There are many reasons why homeowners buy the homes that they do; location, quality, price, amenities, and other factors play into those decisions. Historically, energy efficiency is believed only to have played a small role in particular home-purchase decisions. This report summarizes results of a “natural experiment” that describes views of homeowners who live in an unusual arrangement of new homes in a residential tract outside of Sacramento, California. Homes in this tract are comparable in most respects except that they have substantially different levels of energy efficiency. In a series of focus group discussions, views of these homeowners regarding their purchase decisions were collected, and subsequently analyzed.
The research described in this report was prepared for ConSol and conducted RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE), a unit of the RAND Corporation.
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