Arizona’s largest newspaper, The Arizona Republic on May 5, 2012 published a feature on the HERS® Index. The story, entitled “Testing Today’s Efficient Homes – Index Aims to be Housing’s MPG” provides a detailed description of what takes place on a home energy rating and the RESNET HERS® Index. The featured celebrated the one-millionth home that was issued an HERS® Index Score. The paper followed Daran Wastchak of D.R. Wastchak as he rated a home in the Phoenix housing market. The Phoenix paper quoted C.R. Herro of Meitage Homes. “efficiency is an easy sell to young buyers who have been raised with a sustainability ethic. And older buyers also are an easy sell, because they have paid utility bills for years and understand the benefits of saving $160 a month on air-conditioning. It’s that middle population that we are leveraging (the efficient features) the most because they don’t recognize the difference from one house to the next. That big number gets you the opportunity to have the conversation,” The article also focused on the growing demand for the HERS® Index. It quoted RESNET Executive Steve Baden as saying, “HERS® use is growing, We spent almost a decade coming up with the infrastructure, educating builders and the (construction) trades on the value of the index. We went from certifying a few hundred homes a year to 120,000 in 2011, which was 40 percent of all the new homes sold last year.” He attributes the growth to builders, such as Meritage, that use the score in their sales centers to market homes, as well as the current real-estate market, in which buyers are being more discriminating. To download the article click on RESNET HERS® Index Becoming Housing’s MPG
