The Market of Rental Units

According to a “go green” blog named 2B Green World Website-LEED Consultants, “buildings represent over 50% of US wealth; $800 billion is the amount of renovation and new construction in the United States, buildings account for 1/6 of the worlds freshwater withdrawals, ¼ of its wood harvest and 2/5 of its material and energy flow” (Go Green Facts 1).These figures represent the disadvantages of a world without green building. Throughout this report the focus is on LEED certification and accreditation, and the impact LEED has on several different service firms. The report begins with background information about the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED, and LEED

Americans across the United States search for the perfect home, location and square footage of course a great price to pay for their castle. Finding an affordable place to live is ideal, and necessary for survival in this day of age. As the years go by the cost of living increases but Americans do not receive a cost of living raise. The demand for affordable housing is on a all time high, but so is the cost of housing in the metropolitan areas across the United States. America must take care of its citizens and should provide affordable housing programs, to assist Americans to either purchase or rent a home.

A report prepared by the Economic Roundtable, Rental Housing 2011; The State of Rental Housing in the City of Los Angeles, noted that the city’s rental property had increased due to foreclosures that had started during the 2008 recession and been converted to rental property. Although this increased the options for renters, the incomes of family households had been decreasing since 1990. In this report, Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns state, “Over the past decade, rent as a share of income has shifted from being barely affordable to predominantly unaffordable for renters (2012). They also note that the majority of renters in this area pay 30% to 50% of their income on rent. This is compounded by the problem of the increase of

The economic decline has possible home buyers, especially first time home buyers, scared to invest anything into the housing market. With the fear of another depression in the back of everyone's minds, some businesses are attempting to clarify the pros of home ownership.

When someone is deciding whether to purchase a home, there are a multitude of considerations involved. Purchasing a home is usually the largest investment someone ever makes and they need to take into account the advantages and disadvantages between buying and renting.

Being environmentally friendly isn’t merely a trend. After thousands of years of using the earth’s resources, we have finally come to realize that we are destroying this beautiful gift we were honored with. Architects play an influential role in trying to preserve this gift by encouraging a multitude of strategies that can be more cost efficient in the long run, be more comfortable for its users, and most importantly, have a lower carbon footprint. Strategies can include drastic changes to heat and air systems, construction material selections, or even specific design details to the architecture of a building that would reduce the amount of energy it consumes.

The main aim of factor 4 is to decrease the level of materials utilization and usage of human resources to one fourth level. The Factor 4 follows a set of guidelines for comparing design options and for evaluating the performance of buildings and their component systems. Factor 4 suggests that for humanity to live sustainably today, we must rapidly reduce resource consumption to one-quarter of its current levels. Fortunately, the technology to accomplish Factor 4 reductions in resource consumption already exists and requires only public policy prioritization and implementation.

The social housing program will be a means tested program. Families with an annual household income of $30,000 or less will be eligible for affordable housing. This requirement is set for the possibility of reducing racial inequality since Hispanics and African-Americans are disproportionately ranked the poorest in the United States (Halfmann 2017). I also aim to narrow the gap of these racial disparities by proposing that these new apartments and houses be as eco-friendly as possible. This can be achieved by installing solar panels and energy efficient appliances. These adjustments will lower utility costs tremendously for the household while simultaneously reducing the transmission of greenhouse gases

Macroeconomics is an excellent tool for the analysis of the housing industry as something like a capital good, as a home is considered to be, cannot easily be studied in a short-term platform. Real estate is a good that costs several times more than an average persons annual income, in the United States that number is typically 7 times as much, and in the United Kingdom that number is 14 times as much. Several factors of both supply and demand directly impact the housing market on a macroeconomic scale. (Business Economics, 1)

Grand Homes gives a huge importance for energy efficient construction, net zero construction. Grand has consistently maintained the minimum requirements for the rating-ENERGY STAR®; Grand has successfully built homes that have ratings as low as 61. Grand wishes to implement all the cost effective technologies to achieve net zero homes.

Green buildings could become one of the main factors to preserve our rapidly decaying environment. There is no easy way to define a green building, but a green building is essentially a structure that amplifies the positives and mitigates the negatives throughout the entire life cycle of the building (Kriss, 2014). There are many definitions for a green building, but all of them include the planning, designing, constructing, and operating of the building while taking into huge considerations of the energy use, water use, indoor air environment, materials used and the effect it has on the site the green building is being built on. The first green buildings dates back to as far as the 1970’s, when solar panels went from experiments to reality. Green buildings were not as popular as they are today due to their extremely high pricing. With technology rapidly growing, solar panels are becoming cheaper and cheaper, making the transition to creating green buildings more affordable. This is the primary reason for the increased growth of green buildings today. A modern company that is paving the way to the growth of green buildings named LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, focuses primarily on new and effective ideas for environmentally friendly buildings projects. With more than 60,000 commercial projects worldwide and 1.7 million square feet being certified every day, LEED is one of the leading groups for promoting green buildings. LEED has popularized the entire

Thesis: Home ownership provides greater potential gains than renting, while renting provides superior financial flexibility.

Some individuals may believe that buying a home is part of the American dream and that renting an apartment does not compare, yet satisfied renters would disagree. Even though owning a home provides a sense of security while allowing modifications without permission, renting is preferred more often over buying because the expense of updating, monthly payments combined with utilities, and paying insurance on a home comes with a high price tag. A homeowner does have several luxuries such as forming lasting friendships with their neighbors, making landscaping changes to their yard, painting and designing their home. While that remains true, renting an apartment comes with several different options and

The inefficient homes in the UK have catastrophic effects on global warming. The UK needs to become more energy efficient as at the moment it emits a large amount of greenhouse gases which risk dangerous climate change. The retrofitting of the brick three storey terraced town house is necessary in order to comply with the legislations set out by parliament in the UK Climate Change Act (2008) or if the house falls under the private rented sector it must comply with the Energy Act 2011.

In this part, government attitude and policies are focused on, as well as advanced technologies are considered. Finally, this paper also turn to highlight the relevant field in China and what availability would suit for China, especially focus on what recommendations be suggested to local authorities in order to guide the whole society to aware the importance of green building and accelerate the development of this industry.