An Older Home As A Green Alternative.

Older Home as Green Alternative
Older Home as Green Alternative

Call it recycling on a grand scale. Homebuyers who want their purchase to be more environmentally friendly are turning to older homes instead of building new. In fact, architect Carl Elefante coined the phrase, “the greenest building is the one that is already built.” What he meant by that is that environmental resources that would be used to build a building’s replacement are often times spared by restoring or repurposing an existing structure.

Did you know that it can take up to 80 years for a new, energy-efficient building to overcome the energy and climate change impacts caused during the construction process? Building reuse offers significant environmental savings when compared to the energy consumption of demolition and new construction.

Older buildings constructed prior to reliance on mechanical heating, cooling and lighting systems utilize what nature offers as part of their design. This can help reduce your energy use, helping you save on heating and cooling your home.

Go green and consider purchasing an older home that just needs a little TLC. Use the option to search by Year Built by clicking here to find a home you can recycle.

How To Lower Your Taxes With Upgrades

When you prepare your 2013 taxes, you can use your recent home improvements to get energy-efficiency tax credits. In addition to helping you lower your energy bills, energy-efficient products eligible for the new federal tax credits actually lower the amount of federal income taxes that you pay.

Eligible home improvements

Exterior windows including skylights and storm windows

Insulation, exterior doors and roofs

Central air, heat pumps, furnaces, hot water boilers, water heaters, advanced main air circulating fans or biomass stoves

How to claim your credit

Your tax preparer can help determine your credit. There is a cap of $500 for fiscal years 2006-2013 combined. You will need to keep receipts to provide proof of purchase and have a copy of the manufacturer’s certification for the product you purchased. If you file taxes on your own, you will need to file IRS Form 5695 with your taxes.

 

How to lower your taxes with upgrades.
How to lower your taxes with upgrades.


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