By Jim Wasserman * jwasserman@sacbee.com * Published: Monday, Aug. 23, 2010 – 11:44 am
The first of it’s kind… I’m loving the fact that this would be a great fit for our community here in Southern California. The challenge would be that we would need an increase in the credit amount to cover the necessary improvements. Read on and let me know your thoughts…
The Sacramento Association of Realtors, aiming to overcome consumer reluctance about buying older, energy-guzzling houses, has launched a program to give qualified buyers $2,000 to help make energy-efficiency improvements.
The grant program, funded by a $234,000 SAR fund, is believed to be the first of its kind in California. “We help buyers who need it the most, and improve houses that need it the most,” said SAR coordinator Charlene Singley, a Lyon Real Estate agent in Sacramento. “And we’re out there trying to help improve energy conservation in the area.”
To qualify, buyers must purchase a home built in 1978 or earlier. That covers about six in 10 Sacramento-area houses, said Comstock Mortgage Senior Loan Consultant Kevin Nunn, who created the grant program for SAR. It also covers many of the bank repos that have become a large share of the region’s for-sale listings.
Buyers must use a SAR Realtor or lender. The homes can be located anywhere that one of those members sell.
Buyers must also use a Federal Home Administration or Veterans Administration Energy Efficient Mortgage. Those mortgages, in use since the early 1990s, allow buyers to roll the costs of energy efficiency improvements into their home loans. The idea behind Energy Efficient Mortgages: they save buyers more in the long run than it costs for the financing.
Nunn said energy efficient mortgages allow buyers to borrow up to 5 percent of the sales price – $10,000 in the case of a $200,000 house – to install new air-conditioning, add dual-pane windows or extra insulation to the older house.
He said energy efficiency mortgages most commonly help buyers finance new air-conditioning systems, dual pane windows and insulation. The SAR program requires that a SMUD-certified contractor do the work.
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