It’s December, and we have an early Christmas present for solar contractors in the Pearl Network. Initial results from a study show that Pearl Certified homes with solar panels sell for more — from 3% to over 9% more, to be exact.
And they’re selling more quickly, too. On average, the Pearl Certified homes spent only half as many days on market as the non-certified, non-solar homes.
These findings are the first results from an ongoing study in the Phoenix area. We’ve commissioned Sandra Adomatis, a national expert on appraising homes with energy efficient and renewable features, together with a team of local appraisers, to find out whether Pearl Certified homes sell for a premium, and to quantify premiums when they find them. This is the first data we’ve released from the study — and the Contractor Newsletter is the first place we’ve announced it.
The details will interest solar contractors. The price premium that the Pearl Certified homes achieved exceeded the net present value of the solar array. The study is based on “paired sales” — that is, a comparison between a Pearl Certified home, and a similar home without certification. For six of the paired sales in the study, the premium was more than twice the net present value of the solar array.
In other words, buyers paid a price premium of almost twice the value of the energy that the solar panels will create over their lifetimes for the homes. Look under the hood, and this mystery disappears: the Pearl Certified homes in these paired sales also had energy efficient features, which explains why buyers were willing to pay so much for them.
We’re still in the very early stages of this project. The findings are based on a relatively limited data set, but they’re extremely consistent. We expect to be reporting out other interesting findings over the next six months — so keep watching here for updates.
Pearl is transforming the housing market by scoring, verifying, and certifying the performance of homes across the country.
