Green Mortgage Incentives Match Green Condos

With the recent launch of the Macallen Building in South Boston, the first LEED Certified Green Building in all of Boston, and rumors of more green buildings to come, the mortgage industry is following suit with their own green mortgage incentives.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that lenders are the latest group to jump on the environmental-marketing bandwagon by pitching mortgage products that offer homebuyers bigger loans or discounts if they are making energy-efficient improvements — or if their new home meets certain efficiency standards. Last month, Citigroup Inc.’s mortgage division launched a program that offers $1,000 off closing costs with its energy-efficient mortgage through the end of the year. Also last month, Bank of America Corp. launched an Energy Credit mortgage, which offers a $1,000 credit toward closing fees for mortgages on new homes that meet efficiency requirements set by the government’s Energy Star program. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s mortgage division recently began offering Expanded Energy Conservation Mortgages in some markets that give borrowers more credit, as well as $500 off closing costs, if they find a builder who will use a specific type of spray-foam insulation.

While energy-efficient mortgages have been available from many lenders for some time, they are receiving renewed attention. They allow borrowers to qualify for bigger loans because lenders permit the estimated savings on utility bills to be added to the borrower’s qualifying income. For example, energy-efficient improvements could save a homeowner $50 a month. The $600 extra a year could allow a person to borrow about $10,000 more on a 30-year mortgage, depending on the interest rate.

The new products and incentives are aimed at a market worried about increasingly high energy prices. And amid the turmoil in subprime lending, analysts say, energy-efficient mortgages can be a more secure way to qualify marginal borrowers, since these homeowners are saving money on utility bills.

Based on our recent conversations with Pappas Properties, the developer behind much of the green building trends in Boston real estate, there are almost 30 units still for sale at the 140-unit green Macallen Building. Some of these units are teed up and ready for purchase by Buyers who are awaiting the sale of their existing homes. Important to note, as we’ve stated before, the absorption rate for a green building (let alone the first of its kind in Boston) is going to be somewhat slower than normal as Buyers hold an environmentally conscious debate in their heads on green versus non-green living, and pony up for slightly higher prices per square foot that accompany LEED certified condo developments.