Green Housing

Bill Lurz

AvidBuilder Profile: Home Building's Game Changer [Video]

Building green homes with entry-level pricing is changing the housing industry forever.

Meritage Homes, a big public builder, with operations across the country, builds homes offering 80 percent energy savings in production-built subdivisions, and offers this level of energy efficiency as standard, rather than an option, in homes carrying entry-level pricing. In this video segment of AvidBuilder Profile, Bill Lurz talks in-depth with C.R. Herro, VP of Environmental Affairs at Meritage Homes; Rebecca Smout of SRP, Arizona's largest power and water utility; and Steve Walden of PVT Solar. [Video, HD]

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Bill Lurz

Revolutionary Green

When the giant public home builders completely change the way they build houses, it changes the market. You can’t just build ’em like your Daddy did anymore.

Green is no longer the color of trees; it’s now the color of money. Public giants Meritage and Beazer are investing huge sums to totally change the way they build houses, and these new housing products are so much better than their old ones that it will be increasingly difficult for anyone to sell against them without a HERS score below 40. The Housing Energy Rating System pegs a house built to code at 100. An Energy Star house scores 85, meaning it uses 15 percent less energy than a code house.

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