Pretty in Green

The sheer number of houses being built in New Jersey has been a political issue in the state since the late '90s. Now the state's new governor, Jon Corzine, wants to count how much energy each new house uses. Officials from New Jersey's housing codes divisions, public utilities, mortgage agency and its Department of Environmental Protection are organizing a push to make all new homes the greenest they can be. "We have no choice but to do this," Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "New Jersey is the most crowded, congested state, very dependent on foreign oil. Long-term, it brings down the cost of utilities."

If Levin is right, why hasn't the real-estate market not shepherded buyers toward low energy living already? Studies, like this one from the University of Michigan, show that over a house's lifetime, a more energy efficient box costs the same as a leaky one, even though environmentally correct homes are almost $23,000 more expensive on average to build. (That upfront cost may come down, the U of M study implies, if demand for green homes picks up, introducing economies of scale to the supply of green materials.) The current low demand, in turn, is due in part to a lack of incentive for builders to offer green homes. New Jersey's initiative may change that, and, following the study's logic, topple green dominos beyond the Garden State.

Already, New Jersey isn't alone in its interest in green shelter. As soon as the governor can be scheduled for the photo op, the Maine State Housing Authority will make public the winners of their Green Home Design Contest. Such contests, which are already popular abroad suggest there's something besides regulatory oomph that's damped the market for energy efficient homes. In a report on Australia's avid green-home effort, one assessor noted, "The aesthetics of the Green Home have been the subject of a fair amount of critical comment."