If you buy an energy-efficient house you can afford
more house, thanks to a new mortgage program -- and the environment
breathes a bit easier, too.
Fannie Mae's Energy Efficient Mortgage was unveiled
for the Charlotte area this week.
"With the Energy Efficient Mortgage....
homeowners can borrow more (money) without any increase in
qualifications," said Larry Shirley, director of the N.C. Energy
Office.
Buyers actually benefit two ways. The mortgage
recognizes that buyers will save on energy bills and have more income to
spend on the loan, as Shirley suggested, and factors that into the credit
analysis. And the Energy Efficient Mortgage also sets a higher appraisal
on houses that qualify.
Fannie Mae, a government-chartered company that buys
mortgages from banks and other lenders, is the nation's largest source of
home mortgage money.
Jon Gauthier of Fannie Mae's Charlotte office, along
with Fannie Mae's lending partners Wachovia Mortgage and Countrywide Home
Loans, announced that the loan is now available in the Charlotte area,
following previous debuts in Asheville and Raleigh.
The news came in Crismark in Union County, a new
neighborhood by Cambridge Homes. Cambridge markets the energy efficiency
of its homes, and its in-house lenders will offer the new mortgage, along
with Wachovia and Countrywide.
To demonstrate how the new program will work, energy
rater Isaac Savage of Home Energy Partners performed energy-efficiency
tests on a new Cambridge house.
He ran "blower-door" and
"duct-blaster" tests to measure air leakage in the house, a
two-story, 2,469-square-foot Princeton model with four bedrooms and 2 1/2
baths. With the results, and other information about energy-efficiency
systems and materials in the house, he ran a computer analysis.
The results: The buyer of the house would get credit
for $42 per month in additional income, thanks to energy savings when
compared to costs for a typical house. And the $190,000 house would
appraise for $5,919 more.
Here are other details about the new mortgage,
according to Fannie Mae:
• The mortgage can be used on new or existing
single-family homes or condos. If new, the home would have to have a
rating of the type Isaac calculated.
• The mortgage can be used for both purchase and
refinancing.
• If a home needs energy improvements to qualify,
the buyer can include the cost of the improvements in the loan, up to 15
percent of the home's value.
• Energy ratings typically cost from $150 to $400.
• For a list of lenders offering the Energy
Efficient Mortgage, visit
