ABAG Releases Report on BPER Consumer Market

Research Tells Us...What We, Kind of, Already Knew

Several months ago, the Association of Bay Area Governments, in an effort to comply with Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Reductions, undertook some market research to better understand how consumers / homeowners feel about this area of interest.  

Here's a small picture of what they learned and reported in their Study.

About Consumers / Homeowners:

• they think their house is already energy efficient
• they don't want to spend money because the payback is not fast enough
• the rebates are not big enough to motivate them to buy
• they don't trust contractors
• they don't want liens on their homes (PACE financing)

Pretty challenging set of circumstances for the Energy Retrofit market.  I would be likely to call this a "tough sell."

Are there any of these items that would be easy to fix?  Even if we got some Rhodes Scholars into the contracting business, it's unlikely the consumer perception would significantly change in any short window of time.  

This sobering news comes on the heels of the announcement from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about not subordinating (moving into "second" position) their mortgages behind the PACE financing / property tax lien.  This ruling by the Federal Home Finance Administration (FHFA) , appealed by a lawsuit from California AG Jerry Brown and Sonoma County, has all but shut down project financing in places like Boulder, Colorado and New Jersey.

Click here to download your own personal copy of this well done Report (I'm serious; they did a nice job!)

ABAG Market Research Report

Boulder Landlords Tackle New City Planned Mandates

Horton, BARHA ED, Delivers Sober Message to Council

Executive Director of the BAHRA, Sheila Horton, last Wednesday, May 19, 2010, delivered some strong messages to the Boulder City Council.  Horton and her members are who is intent on protecting landlords. (As much as 50% of Boulder's housing stock is thought to be owned by investors / landlords.)


I spoke to Ms. Horton, by phone, on May 27: she was quite busy getting ready for the next round of fighting.  Putting on her gloves, as it were.  


She also had quite a lineup of supporters at the City meeting to counter the "other guys:" members of the Green Building Industry and Tenants.  

"At $1,500 to $2,000 per unit, these landlords can't afford to spend that kind of money on a retrofit that, frankly, may not deliver the results that are predicted," says Horton.  


"I can see why the Green Building industry is lining up: there's a lot of money to be made with all of these potential retrofits..." added Horton.


The original impetus for some of this brouhaha came out of a piece published in the Wall Street Journal article, written by former LA Times writer Stephanie Simon back in February 2010.


Boulder's "Daily Camera" barked back with claims of negativity towards Simon's writing.  In her piece,   Laura Snider cited a prejudiced slant in the WSJ article.  

Jonathan Koehn, Boulder's regional sustainability coordinator.

Big Assumptions Affect BPER Market

How Will These Assumptions Play Out?

Lots of assumptions -- that have already been made but not tested -- will affect the BPER market rollout.