According to Builder Magazine (online), the arrival of two HUD programs that attract private investors to energy efficient incentives spells headway for the green mortgage industry.
One program is called the Energy Innovation Fund, which will award $25 million in funding through a grant process that will seed up to $200 million in revolving loan funds, loan guarantees and green mortgages. The second program is Green Refinance Plus, in which the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) assumes half the risk on a loan or acquisition underwritten by Fannie Mae on existing green projects. This allows homeowners to borrow additional money to make energy-saving improvements to their properties.
Builderonline goes on to mention other organizations that are driven to convince lenders of the benefits of green retrofits. Fannie Mae, for example, is compiling energy use data on multifamily buildings in order to develop a ratings scale. Other initiatives seek to standardize collective energy consumption data to compile a “broad-reaching energy data taxonomy” for use by multifamily industry green innovators.
A step in the right direction? We think so.
Credit: BuilderOnline.com
