 There’s a battle brewing in Austin. Some city officials want to mandate energy upgrades for houses, tying these upgrades to the sale of the home. The Austin Board of REALTORS® has launched a campaign against this effort. The Austin REALTORS® drew up their own proposal to achieve a “greener” city, which includes incentives, education, and public outreach. The REALTORS® even suggested that they themselves could play an integral role in explaining the benefits of energy efficiency to homebuyers.
But this is just a local issue for those crazy Austinites, right? Don’t count on it. This is the type of initiative that, once passed, has a way of catching on in other Texas cities. And it’s the kind of idea that can take on a new twist in each location where it pops up. So what’s going on in our state’s capital may be worth a closer look.
Austin officials, particularly the mayor, have expressed dismay at the Austin board’s public-awareness campaign. They say the REALTORS® are attacking a plan that doesn’t yet exist – it’s still being drawn up by a task force. (Even so, the mayor has frequently commented on what he believes the plan will and will not include.)
True, there is no final proposal. But the task force has been given an official charge. Here’s part of the language from that charge: “That the task force shall produce recommendations reflecting the following guidelines and mandates: Protocols shall apply to owner-occupied residential properties at the point of sale.”
So Austin REALTORS® are rightly concerned that the city is moving toward mandated energy upgrades at the point of sale. The group argues that point-of-sale mandates fall short for several reasons. Think about it – if a homeowner must sell his property due to mortgage problems, a lost job, or other financial difficulties, forcing that person to fork over more cash before allowing him to sell puts him deeper in a hole. If it’s the buyer who faces the burden, that person is looking at yet another cost at a time when he can least afford it.
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There are several other reasonable arguments against a mandated retrofit triggered when a homeowner sells:
- This approach only reaches a fraction of homeowners
- This type of mandate places a disproportionate burden on the people who can afford it least
- Getting the city involved will almost certainly require additional permitting, another inspection, an application, or a combination of all three
- Adding another step to the sales process will slow down home sales
- This proposal has built-in inequities, placing requirements on one homeowner simply because he sells or buys a home, while his neighbor has no duty to upgrade if he does not sell
- Sellers may perform bare-minimum upgrades just to meet the standards for selling
To their credit, the Austin Board of REALTORS® didn’t just focus on the negative. Their campaign materials stress to the city and its citizens the benefits of Austin homes becoming more energy efficient. They presented an alternative proposal that focuses on rebates, zero-interest loans, exemptions on sales tax, and property-tax incentives that all serve to give homeowners the information and assistance to make good choices on their own terms.
Why do these city officials think it’s a good idea to make energy upgrades mandatory when someone sells a home? I don’t know. Maybe it just seemed like an easy way to “green up” the city a bit. But that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t mean it’s smart. And it certainly doesn’t represent the best way to realize the excellent goal of increased energy efficiency.
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