In the quaint city of Saratoga Springs Utah, I found a developer bold enough to tackle the traditional building system and step out of what he calls the “wooden box” for his residential housing project. Dave Christenson, Co-owner of Coyote Creek Estates is planning to build 24 luxury Green homes with a firm resolution to have the most eco-friendly homes in Utah. When asked why, Mr. Christenson said, “I simply cannot wrap my head around doing things the old-fashioned way.” The project is designed around a country modern platform to blend in with the native surroundings and an equestrian center already under operation. The big news, a Coyote Creek home will reduce total energy consumption by more than 70%. If you think that is a bold undertaking think twice, because Dave says, “it’s doable." Ok, so it is possible to build extremely energy efficient homes but is it profitable as well?

Further prodding into the question of profitability I discovered that statistically a green home is more likely to appraise at higher values and sell accordingly. With regards to Coyote Creek Estates this statistic rings true. Mr Christenson has already reserved half the lots on his estate for anxious buyers of his green homes. But are these homes affordable for the less than affluent consumer? When asked directly, Dave C. said that his homes will cost upwards of 10% more than the energy sucking equivalent. All the homes in the development are competitivley priced between $500,000 and $700,000. To this end, I propose this question, if going green is not as difficult or costly as one might consider then why are we not seeing truly green homes becoming the standard?

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