As Mass. towns adopt new climate-friendly building codes, homebuilders push back

Massachusetts faces two enormous challenges: The cost of housing and the changing climate.

And while nearly everyone agrees the state needs to tackle both of them, the debate over a new report out last week highlights how — at least to some — the solutions sometimes conflict.

The report, published by the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Massachusetts (HBRAMA), and written by economists at MIT and Wentworth, argues that the new net-zero building codes being adopted by communities around the state could increase the cost of building a new single-family home by anywhere from $10,000 to $23,000. That, they warn, could push housing out of reach for even more Massachusetts families.

Then there are state and federal initiatives that help pay for them. One of the major state programs, Mass Save, provides a $15,000 subsidy for all-electric single-family homes. The state also offers tax credits of up to $1,000 for homes that use solar-generated electricity and hot water.

Leaving those out was a major omission, said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for the Acadia Center, a non-profit organization for clean energy solutions.

“The report estimates a cost premium, but that’s without factoring in public incentives,” he said. “So I would disagree with that major conclusion about costs going up.”

To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.