A recent study published on HousingEconomics.com supports the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) policy that a change of building codes is only cost effective if it returns at least 10 percent in energy savings within the first year. The common alternative to this policy is one in which the current mortgage rate is used to evaluate energy efficiency, which the NAHB criticizes as being based off of an unrealistic assumption and therefore producing unrealistic results. The study supports NAHB policy by providing evidence from three different sources indicating that the return threshold that drives most decisions is much higher than effective mortgage rates.
Read the full article here: Energy Efficiency Should Yield 10 Percent-Plus Return, Study Says