A net-zero housing development in Hudson that I wrote about a year ago will have a ribbon cutting next week.
This 13-lot, 26-unit condex (duplex condos) subdivision features all-electric homes designed to produce as much energy as they consume thanks to high-performance building design, rooftop solar, and smart energy systems. They cost $700,000 each, which seems crazy to those of us who haven’t bought houses in years but isn’t out of line with current pricing. If they weren’t duplexes, the development told me last year, they’d be a million bucks apiece.
Some details from my previous story:
As you know, buildings consume a huge amount of the nation’s energy, particularly in places like New England where so much of the housing stock is old. We’re finally starting to build a lot of homes again in New Hampshire and those buildings are going to be using energy for decades to come so it behooves us to make them to be as efficient as possible.
But construction is a conservative business that’s loathe to deviate from long-established practices. Home developers aren’t going to embrace a bunch of new ideas unless there’s good evidence that they work and people will buy them. That’s the role of Barrett Hill, said ohn Gargasz, founder of Aspire Residential that is developing the project.
“There are no subsidies. This is a market-rate project. We believe that the market is going to be attractive to these not only for the sustainable piece, but because they’re much more affordable to own,” he said. If this development succeeds, the next one will be that much easier.
By the way, a key part of keeping the cost relatively low wasn’t technology or architecture, it was zoning. “What Hudson has done is allow duplex zoning … with open space. You get to split the cost of the lot basically in half,” said Gargasz. That lowers the cost of land, roads and utility hookups.
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