On June 11, Scott Bernstein, CNT President, testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee in support of the proposed “Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods (G.R.E.E.N.) Act” by U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO).

The Bill provides incentives to lenders and financial institutions to provide lower interest loans and other benefits to consumers, who build, buy or remodel their homes and businesses to improve their energy efficiency. This timely legislation reflects foresight and the considered input of a broad coalition of housing advocates, financial institutions, government leaders, developers, and the environmental community.

Bernstein testified in support of the bill, along with suggesting improvements, including expanding “efficiency” in this case to include “location efficiency” – the importance of valuing location to transportation infrastructure as a function of energy efficiency. Read his full testimony, including improvements, here.

CNT helped develop the Location Efficient Mortgage (LEM)™ mortgages that help people become homeowners in communities where they can walk from their homes to stores, schools, recreation, and public transportation, saving them money by reducing their need to drive from place to place. LEM’s™ were available in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco from 2001-2004. A recent survey of all the awarded LEMs showed that one had defaulted. In Chicago. for example, of the 41 loans, there were no defaults and 30 percent of the borrowers sold a car.

The G.R.E.E.N. Act is a great start in providing incentives to homeowners in becoming more efficient, but should not overlook the importance of the ˜location” of a home when determining its “efficiency”. Just like the Location Efficient Mortgage, the G.R.E.E.N. Act can be used as a tool for combating foreclosures by revealing hidden costs of inefficiently located housing.

(CNT’s newest tool to reveal these costs is the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, which is now available as an online interactive map at www.htaindex.org).

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 10:42 am and is filed under Featured Portfolio News, Location efficiency, Transportation and Community Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.