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"Some economists, however, don't believe....there aren't 20-dollar bills lying around waiting to be picked up....why didn't the free market vacuum them up?" I'

• jerf 17y ago
  You are hypothesizing a conspiracy between industries that are basically unconnected to each other. It seems a far more likely explanation that people want cheap homes now and don't buy based on energy efficiency (which costs money), and that builders want to save money by not installing things that won't make the home sell for more. No conspiracy seems necessary.
  • jbarmash 17y ago
    you are right about incentives being misaligned. In Europe, when you buy / sell a home, you get an energy report of how much you'll pay for utilities, so people are starting to take energy costs into account. This is becoming true in the US, with New York, Austin, DC, and Seattle passing building benchmarking laws in the past year. Many are focused on larger buildings, but it's a good beginning. This is especially important for larger buildings, esp. low-income housing, where owners pay for much of the energy, and thus are incentivized to be more efficient.
    • Xichekolas 17y ago
      I think a really simple and sort of bash-you-over-the-head means to get this across to homebuyers would be to tack on the monthly utilities to the mortgage+tax number that people see. If you were comparing the price of two houses, you often look at the monthly cost of mortgage and taxes... so throwing utilities on there would make it more apparent which house will actually be cheaper over the long term.