If you to buy a house, should you consider new house or pre-own house from environmental consideration?

Question

New house could have better insolation, more efficient appliance, more green potential but it require all new materials to build.
Pro-own house may take some investment to make it energy efficient and green but you don't contribute to destroy more trees, etc. for example.
How would you decide if you are in the market to buy a house?

I am not buying or building a house. It's just a question I think useful for those who have plans to. Very helpful answers so far.

Answer 1

New houses generate 3.5 tons of landfill waste.

I rehab houses and reuse as much stuff as possible. You can do quite a bit to an existing house to make it energy efficient - maybe not as much as you can when you build a new one - but you can be very efficient - then you can add solar to offset the balance of the energy usage needed.

If you are still thinking of building - make sure you use a "truly" green builder - test them ask lots of questions (I have a checklist) and that they know a lot about energy efficiency.

Make sure the builder has a strategy to minimize waste and recycle all the waste they can - there are ways to significantly limit or completely eliminate construction waste - however, it might be more expensive - it's something that has to be done.

p.s. do not hire one of the top 5 tract builders (Pulte, Kaybee, etc) they are the worst, and they fight green and energy efficiency at every turn. I had a meeting with the VP of construction for one of the big builders last week, and they were refusing to consider adding energy efficiency because of the cost it adds - without consideration of the payback of loewr utility bills and more comfortable houses.

Answer 2

It is a matter of preference. Some people only want new houses that have never been lived in. They feel as if buying a pre-owned house is like buying used clothing or a car. We have always bought pre-owned homes because they had more character and the landscaping is mature. I don't like new homes because they are just too blank and cookie cutter looking. You can pick out flooring, tile, fixtures and appliances in a new home if you buy it before it is completed. Price wise you may or may not be getting more for your money. In this area new homes are at least $25-50,000 more than pre-owned ones. If not then they are cheaply made. Also there are a lot of pre-owned homes for sale here which makes for better negotiation. I think a compromise would be anything less than 5 years old; almost new. The new home bugs will be resolved by then (we hope). There are new home bugs just like there are new car bugs. Go out shopping to see what you get in the new homes in your area. Then compare that to the pre-owned ones. Another thing about new homes is that they are either staged or vacant while pre-owned ones are usually not. It is hard for many buyers to imagine their furniture etc. in a home that is not staged to sell.

Answer 3

It depends on how old the pre-owned is, most of the homes built in the last 10 or 15 years are going to be much more efficient than something that's 50 years old.

Answer 4

Most older homes, being better built can still be retrofitted with good eco-choice products.
New Pre-fabs don't have these considerations.
The only way to go when building new, is to build from the ground up with 100% participation in the process keeping sustainability issues uppermost in your mind.

If I found the right older home, oh yes, I would love it for the wood savings and the feel of it.
But I would also love to build new using sustainably harvested wood and all the rest.
Hmmmmm. A tie for me.

Answer 5

you buy an older house, and it will probably be of much better construction, back in the days when a 2x4 was a 2x4 and not a 1.5x3. Of course you will have to update some of the insulation and stuff, but some of the new houses are very cheaply made and basically inadequate, like a mcdonalds burger, thats why they call them mcmansions, along with being cheap and bad for you they are souless and massproduced.

Answer 6

Stop buying up farmland and tearing down forests/woodland to buy a house that is cheaply built and not made to last. My house was built in 1860 and is sturdy as anything you can imagine. There's a 250 year old maple tree in the back yard that will provide us with endless shade and energy saving potential. My house has an 18" wide foundation made of field stone, we never get water in our basement and our house will last for another 100 years. Build your house with today's lousy standards and it will be waste in 50 years. Save our land and buy old for quality and originality. Today's products are not made to last....

Answer 7

They are going to build more houses whether you like it or not, so you might as well get the benefit of better environmental upgrades in a new home. However, you should still look into pre-owned homes which have upgrades, such as solar panels or double paned windows. Don't limit yourself based on inadequate information.

Answer 8

We currently live in the house my father-in-law built in the 1970's. My husband purchased the house from them, when his folks retired.

This house is extremely well built, with oodles of insulation. It's 3600 sq ft. We use only about 600 gallons of propane to heat the house the entire winter. We live at 4700 foot elivation, and winters here are brutal. We will have killing frosts in just three more weeks. Even though this home was built a over 30 years ago, it's better than many of the new construction houses.

The difference with our home is, it was owner built, and my F.I.L. carred very much if his family would be warm, and they would be able to heat this huge home.

So we have things like double pane windows, PLUS storm windows over them, storm doors, tripple insulation in the actic, ect.

My husband and I will be building our own brand new home in the very near future. It will be even larger than this one, at around 5000 sq ft. Of course it will be straw bale construction, and have radiant heat floors. That means the floors will be concrete with tubes to carry hot water in the concrete.

New construction does not have to be environmentally damaging. Farmers around here (Idaho) use to just burn the straw in the fields, after wheat harvest. We will actually be using a waste product for our homes construction.

We serriously concidered building a rammed earth home. That means we would have been PAID to build our home, as tire companies would have paid us to haul away, and recycle the used tires. That would have been $1-$2 a tire, they would have PAID US!

For speed of construction however we have settled on straw bale. I already collect items which will be used in the construction. Huge sinks from 1930's homes which were destined for the dump, certain light fixtures which appeal to me, and varrious other items.

We will not install something as silly as wall to wall carpet. So no massive use of plastics there. Some of the appliances will be new of course. We will choose energy effcient models, as long as they work well, and provide us with what I require. We will be totally off grid, with wind, solar and hopefully wood.

It was easy for us to decide...build your own home! It's a great way to go!

By the way, a lot of new houses really do NOT have better insulation. We have owned two really well constructed homes from the 1970's, and one very, very poorly constructed home from the 1970's. We bought the poor construction one more for the land, than the home. We knew the home was crap.

I also used to own a 1929 farmhouse. It had undergone some updates, and was quiet well insulated, and certainly solid as they come.

So much of it has to do with how the home was cared for, and if it was owner built or a huge subdivision was put in all at once.

My personal preferance is to build ones own home, so it suits your and your family to a T.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 9

It's a wash. Whether you buy a new house or an old one, a new house will be built due to your contribution to the demand side of housing.

An exception to this would be if you fix up a distressed house that might be razed without your efforts.

Answer 10

Wow, that's a very interesting story Bohemian_garnet. I wish you all the best building your new home. :)