The National Association of Realtors has released its 2023 Realtors and Sustainability Report – Residential, which shows that the majority of these real estate professionals (63 percent) find promoting a home’s energy efficiency very or somewhat valuable. More than 2,000 realtors participated in the survey, and their opinions of energy efficiency are driven largely by consumer interests in sustainability, according to Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research.

This year’s sustainability report also revealed that:

• 50 percent of realtors were directly involved with homes that listed green features – either on the buyer’s or seller’s side – in the past 12 months.
• 32 percent of agents and brokers found multiple listing service properties had green fields. Of those, 37 percent promoted those features, with 24 percent using the fields to promote energy information and 14 percent using it to promote green certifications.
• Nearly half (48 percent) of agents and brokers say consumers are very or somewhat interested in sustainability.

Interestingly, the green home features that realtors believed were the most important to clients included windows, doors and siding (39 percent) and a home’s utility bills and operating costs (25 percent). Also, 11 percent of respondents said a high-performance home (defined as a systemic, building-science approach to home improvements that increase indoor comfort, health, operational efficiency and durability) had an increase of one to five percent in dollar value offered compared to other similar homes.

Notable Takeaways Compared with 2022

Compared with the 2022 report, there are a couple of notable takeaways:

• The percentage of respondents that said a high-performance home increased the dollar amount offered for the property decreased from 19 percent last year to 11 percent this year.
• An equal percentage (63 percent) of people reported that energy efficiency promotion in listings was very or somewhat important.

To read the full 2023 report, click here.