Thomas and Lewis, along with Mark Waring, vice president of Richmond-based Bain-Waring Builders, are building a home in Chesterfield County that’s so energy-efficient it’s among the first to be certified as such in Virginia.

Thomas and Lewis are building a zero-energy home, one that produces as much energy as its uses, therefore canceling out monthly heating and cooling bills. Through the use of solar panels, geothermal heating and cooling systems, a tightly sealed shell, energy-saving appliances — not to mention turning off lights when they leave a room — they’re looking forward to living in a home that’s not only cheaper for them, but better for the environment.

The certification is being conducted by EarthCraft, one of our favorite ‘eco-friendly’ organizations.

Before they move in, the house will undergo a series of tests to show how “green” it is and to check the energy efficiency of the home’s design.

EarthCraft Virginia is the organization that pressure-tests air systems, ductwork and more and then certifies homes at three levels, with the highest being the platinum level, which is what Thomas and Lewis are striving for.

High-performance homes, as EarthCraft Executive Director KC McGurren called Thomas and Lewis’ home, are “very rare, particularly with new construction.”

You can read the entire article here.

What do you think?

For more information, see Richmond VA New Homes.

Contracts for the sale of existing homes rose sharply in February, possibly indicating a second surge of home sales due to the extended homebuyer tax credit, a widely watched industry report said Monday.

In the single-biggest monthly rise since October 2001, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index rose 8.2% in February to 97.6 from a downwardly revised 90.2 in January. The increase surprised economists surveyed by Briefing.com, who were expecting a 1% decrease.

Note well that this is contract data, not sales data:

The report measures signed real estate contracts, but not completed sales, for existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops. Pending home sales are considered a forward-looking indicator since many of the contracts don’t result in completed transactions for many weeks or months.

The big question is, as always, why? Are buyers responding to the impending expiration of the federal tax credit? Are buyers just a twinge more confident in their employment outlook and thus willing to take the plunge? Have prices fallen to a level that makes ownership more affordable?

One economist summed up one piece of the puzzle:

“When I step back and look at the longer-term picture, housing affordability has been restored. The plunge in prices was always the solution to the housing bust — not the problem,”

You can read more about this here.

For more information, see Richmond VA New Homes.

The Richmond area is expected to be among the healthiest new-home markets in the U.S. this year, according to Builder magazine. Based on a formula using 2009 building-permit data and weighted 2010 projections for household formations, resale values, job growth and income growth, the recently released Builder Market Health Index report put the region at No. 12 on a list of the 20 healthiest markets.

One of the reasons that our local market looks to be relatively strong is that Richmond hasn’t experienced the kind of boom-and-bust cycle that many other parts of the country has.

Kevin McNulty, president of the Home Building Association of Richmond, said he was not surprised.

“Richmond traditionally has never gotten as out of whack as some other parts of the country,” he said. “We’re traditionally a more stable market, and therefore usually a little sooner to recover.”

As always, another driver for the relatively bullish outlook is that all-important four-letter word: J-O-B-S.

The region, which boasted a below-average unemployment rate of 8.4 percent at the end of 2009, “is poised to start adding jobs again,” the report says.

You can read more about this here.

For more information, see Richmond VA New Homes.

Housing economists have long held that the housing rebound, when it comes, will be uneven. The markets that benefit first will be the ones with the strongest core dynamics; places where house prices never got out of hand, cities where a diverse and progressive employment base drives job creation, towns that continue to draw population despite the economic recession.

Richmond comes in at #12 out of the top twenty markets in this survey!

Specifically, they say the following about Richmond:

Market Health Indicator: 37.3

2009 Total Building Permits: 3,042

2010 Building Permit Forecast: 3,329

Richmond is another market on the mend. The city of 1.24 million is a state capital and home to several universities. The median price of a home here, $198,000, fell only 5% last year. Now, the region, which boasted a below average unemployment rate of 8.4% at year end, is poised to start adding jobs again. Market Intelligence expects employment to rise 0.3% in 2010. Permit levels are expected to rise by roughly 10%, though they won’t come close to 2008′s level of 4,970.

You can read the entire article here.

What do you think? Are we poised to see a better-than-average real estate market here in Richmond?

For more information, see Richmond VA New Homes.