Eco-Friendly Sales Features on the Rise Right Now
Eco-friendly, sustainable and green home features are on the rise, seen in the share of Realtor.com listings with such descriptions rising at a slow, but significant pace over the past six years. The growth in listing descriptors has nearly doubled in that time frame, from 76,335 listings in 2018 with prominent green wording to 150,388 in 2023.
Emphasizing a listing with “energy-efficient” in language nearly tripled, from 10,756 in 2018 to 29,288 just five years later.
According to Realtor.com, Even those less-than-sexy rows of solar panels that were once considered anomalies are finding more fans, according to our data.
In 2018, nearly 25,000 home listings were advertising these ray-catchers, while last year that figure rose to almost 51,000.
“The rise in eco-friendly home listings mirrors trends we’ve seen in specific categories, such as for EV-friendly homes, called out in the team’s deep dive on the most EV-friendly housing markets,” says Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “The data suggest that consumer tastes and preferences are leaning in an earth-friendly direction, and sellers are positioning their properties to meet those new and growing demands.”
Some homeowners are driven to save not just the environment, but also some cash—in the form of government kickbacks for adding eco-forward features to their homes.
