Texas Overshadows All Other States in Building Energy Star Homes

A new report from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program of the number of Energy Star homes being built has been recently released. In 2008, Energy Star has maintained about the same market penetration that it had in 2006, approximately 36%. However, the volume of Energy Star homes built dropped from about 60,000 in 2006, to just over 40,000 in 2008, most notably due to the overall slowdown in the housing market. No joy in Mudville with these statistics.

There is, however, good news locally. As is the case with almost all real estate related statistics, of late, Texas now builds more Energy Star homes than any other state. In fact, there are more Energy Star homes being built in Texas than the next six leading states combined. In 2006, Texas only surpassed the next three leading states. More silver lining news from flyover country: about 1/3 of all Energy Star homes which are built in the United States are built in Texas. Funny, I’d have expected much more participation from the blue states? And the Energy Star Trend in Texas is continuing.

To quantify this into numbers we can all understand – without using trillions in the discussion - builders in Texas have saved resources which are equal to removing 20,000 vehicles from the road, more than 100,000,000 pounds of coal and have saved more than 30,000 acres of trees. All while saving consumers more than $18 million on their utility bills.

Once again, it’s good to be in Texas. And, ladies and gentlemen, Texas is good for the environment.