From The Forums: Home Value, Should I Install Solar
by Alan Graham on 04.15.08
One of the best features of TreeHugger is our forums. Not only will you find tons of entertaining discussions going on, you'll also find a lot of helpful people with answers to your green questions. I've started a discussion today about a concern I have installing a solar system into our "transitional house."
My wife and I would love to install a solar power system in our house, however I doubt we will be in our current home in Portland more than 5 years or so. That being said, if we install a solar electric system we won't recoup our investment from electricity savings over the next 20+ years.I do see that installing a solar system would likely increase the value of our home, and I believe that you can get that value-add back from your taxes when you sell the home because that increase in value is tax exempt.
With other local/federal incentives, that seems like we could see a $10k investment in solar might return $20k in home value. Not to mention that it might make the home more attractive to future buyers.
Our realtor seems to agree that anything green is a good investment.
Can anyone shed light on this?
No pun intended.
If you have the answer for us, please come in and share it!!!
