Full Circle Real Estate Group: Athens Real Estate, Sustainable Real Estate

We gathered the troops at Full Circle to discuss what home and building trends we thought would be in demand this year. Based on our conversations with clients, our knowledge of sustainable building practices and that crystal ball we have lying around our office, we predict we’ll hear a lot more about these Top 10 trends in 2010:

1.    Living Smaller: The days of decadence and McMansions are over. Smart builders are already figuring out creative ways to build smaller, tighter, more energy-efficient homes with better use of space. Buyers don’t want to sacrifice luxury, but they will give up square footage to lessen their footprint. The average size of a new house decreased last year for the first time in nearly three decades and we predict that trend will continue.

2.    Adaptive Reuse: You can recycle more than paper and plastic. More and more people are adapting old buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features. We’ve seen this trend grow over the last several years in Athens and it will only continue due to the demand for in-town living options.

3.    Walkability: As we mentioned, there has been a growing demand for in-town living, particularly from baby boomers, who want to live where they can walk or ride their bikes to do their daily activities. We hope Clarke County will maintain an emphasis on enhancing sidewalks, bike lanes, greenways and parks because demand for these amenities from buyers will continue to grow.

The U.S. Green Building Council just announced it is expanding the benefits of green building to include its surroundings. LEED for Neighborhood Development, one of the USGBC's newest rating systems, will be rolling out later this summer. Many practitioners and developers are waiting eagerly for this LEED rating system, which is the first to look beyond a single building and incorporate the context of a project.

This will be the first national program for green neighborhood design and construction, the rating system aims to transform the market for larger projects in terms of locations, design and performance.

Click HERE for more information on this new LEED designation.

Modular homes and GreenPods are becoming more and more popular as an affordable way to build green. A growing cadre of architects and builders who, with varying luck, have turned to factories to build green. The homes range from simple cottages, available for less than $100,000, to high-end showpieces at $1 million or more, according to an article in today's USA Today.

These are not mobile homes, known as "manufactured" housing, but rather "modular" homes built to local codes and set on permanent foundations. They often consist of several customized modules that are placed together at the property.

"It's the future," says David Johnston, Colorado-based author of Green From the Ground Up. In the past year, Johnston has held green-building workshops at factories in several states. Click HERE for more info!

"Tough economic times like these weed out those who believe that green represents an added cost that can only be sold when clients have money to burn. The designers, builders, and owners pursuing green now are those who have made it a core value of their business. They understand that building green is ultimately the frugal choice, while building otherwise is wasteful." - Editors' Letter, Green Source Magazine, March/April 2009.

In the February issue of Traditional Building, nine distinguished architects discuss “The Changing Architectural Practice in the Age of Lean.” All of them cite a high level of client awareness on sustainability, particularly among governmental and educational institutions. All of them discuss the ways in which sustainable building practices imbue the culture of their firms. And to a person, they articulate the link between saving the planet and saving traditional buildings.

To read more about the role of traditional building in climate change from the President of Restore Media LLC, click HERE.