Every four to five years, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration surveys American households about energy use and affordability. Preliminary results from the 2024 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) point to a notable increase in energy insecurity—a trend that policymakers, builders, and industry stakeholders cannot ignore.
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New home construction defects are far too common in residential buildings. According to a white paper from Professional Warranty Service Corporation, 25 percent of new homes may experience some form of structural defect, and most latent defects appear between the first four to seven years. Most of those problems can be avoided with good, thoughtful design and good training.
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The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently released its 2025 Residential Sustainability Report, showing increasing interest in home energy efficiency. Consumer interest in residential energy efficiency isn’t new, as efficiency tops the list of most desired features in a home. What’s striking this year is that more consumers than ever are specifically asking about energy efficiency.
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NAIMA has just released a new guide, titled “Insulation, Energy Codes & Housing Affordability.” The publication details the positive impact that modern building energy codes have on housing affordability.
For most homeowners, utility costs, including heating and cooling costs, rank among the top three expenses after their mortgage. Building homes to a more modern energy efficiency code saves homeowners money over the long term and has a host of other benefits.
Details »NAIMA recently announced the results of its annual recycled content survey, which reports its members’ use of recycled materials. In 2024, NAIMA members in the United States and Canada used more than 3 billion pounds of recycled glass and slag in the production of residential, commercial, industrial, and air-handling thermal and acoustical insulation.
By: Andy Cockburn, NAIMA Canada
Millions of existing homes across North America need help improving their performance. Enhancing comfort, reducing energy costs, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions are all key priorities. One of the most effective ways to achieve these goals is through a deep energy retrofit (DER).
A recent National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) survey revealed that a majority of prospective homebuyers rate energy-efficient features, such as above-code insulation and ENERGY STAR-compliant appliances and building products (including windows, doors, and HVAC systems), as essential or desirable. While the consumer desire for energy-efficient features isn’t new, it has only grown in importance in recent years.
A decade ago, the average U.S. home size was 2,657 square feet, and the average household size was 2.58 persons. Today, the square footage and household size have decreased in America for one simple reason: cost. However, it is not just the cost to build but also the cost to operate a home, which can be a buyer’s second-largest expense after the mortgage.
The Trump Administration’s announcement that it plans to shutter the EPA ENERGY STAR program reverberated across the industry this week. While much of the attention is focused on the impacts on appliances, the housing and building performance industry would be heavily impacted by the end of the ENERGY STAR for residential and commercial buildings. After all, ENERGY STAR is foundational to many high-performance building programs.
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“Strengthening building efficiency codes is an essential element of increasing resilience and improving health and safety,” concludes a new report from Just Solutions, a climate organization that works with communities disproportionately impacted by climate change to improve outcomes.
The report, released last month, urges the adoption of the 2021 IECC efficiency standards in new single-family construction, conducting more benefit-cost analyses of investments in building energy efficiency retrofits, increasing the passive survivability of homes, and committing to a holistic approach to resilience to mitigate the impacts of worsening climate extremes. The organization joins a long list of NGOs and for-profit companies, including Zillow, now advocating for increased resiliency in U.S. housing.
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