Oh sure, home buyers who've purchased those new fangled "green" homes are pretty pleased with themselves.

They dug deep to afford the extra cost of buying green, they rode the green home technology learning curve and, given the short supply of green homes, they managed to find a green house where they really want to live -- whatever it takes to help the species control its petrol habit and keep the habitat from heating up, washing out or losing other species.

It's hip to be smug about saving the planet.

But what really gets green home owners tickled pick is their reduced operating costs.

Preliminary research from the National Association of Home Builders and McGraw Hill Construction finds that while 50 percent of green home buyers said they were motivated by environmental concerns and their families' health, 63 percent said lower operating and maintenance costs was their key motivator.

The survey allowed more than one reason for purchasing.

The survey's "green" home had at least three of the five following elements: incorporation of energy-efficient products; features that address indoor air quality; attention to resource management (including use of recycled materials in building); attention to site management (including the location of the home and its surroundings); and increased water efficiency.

A home could also be considered green in the survey if it was certified as such, or had a major green feature incorporated into it, such as solar heating.

Last year McGraw-Hill Construction estimated only 2 percent of the residential construction market could be considered truly green by those standards. The new research says only 0.3 percent of all existing U.S. homes are truly green, constructed using several different green building design features and products.

The survey results were released recently during the 9th Annual National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) National Green Building Conference in St. Louis and will be published this summer in the next issue of the McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket Report series.

The survey also found:

• The vast majority of green home owners, 85 percent, said they are more satisfied with their new green homes than with their previous, more traditionally built homes, but then, newness alone can do that.

• More than 60 percent of those surveyed say that consumer awareness, additional costs and the limited availability of homes are obstacles to green homes gaining a bigger market share. Education was considered the "biggest" obstacle to overcome. People buying green homes were willing to pay an $18,500 premium according to McGraw-Hill.

• The new green home owner is affluent and well educated, in his/her mid 40s and married, and also more likely to be from the Southern or Western states. Women are also more likely to be green home owners than men.

Published: April 5, 2007

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.