Award-Winning Spec Home Leverages Benefits of Building Healthy Homes
The rise in building material prices, shortages in labor and rise in home sales prices are leading some builders to pivot from pre-sales and/or custom builds to a speculative building business model. Maximizing the interest in a spec home or condo to appeal to today’s buyers — and managing build costs to be able to offer a target price point — are critical to successfully building and selling spec homes.
Industry research has consistently shown high consumer interest in and willingness to pay for energy efficiency, smart home tech and healthy homes — a trend that has continued upward during the coronavirus pandemic.
One builder who has test-driven these concepts on a spec home is former NAHB Chairman Randy Noel of Reve, Inc. A custom builder for more than 30 years, he decided to build a speculative home for the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans’ Parade of Homes around the pillars of efficiency, resiliency, health and smart home tech, as well as pilot the Wellness Within Your Walls (WWYW) healthy home certification.
Healthy home features include:
- Maximizing natural light,
- Detaching the garage from the home and connecting it via a breezeway,
- Installing locking cabinets for pharmaceuticals and garden chemicals,
- Controlling humidity for the outside fresh air being brought into the home and reducing stress on the heat pump,
- Removing contaminants from the incoming utility water through reverse osmosis water filters,
- Installing automatic faucets to reduce touch points,
- Incorporating an electromagnetic field (EMF) control cabinet — the interior of which is painted with a special electromagnetic wave-blocking paint — for electronics charging,
- Integrating automatic vents in the bathroom to exhaust damp air from the home,
- Installing a non-combustible, electric fireplace and induction cooktop, and
- Incorporating a kitchen herb wall.
“You can, with a great deal of confidence, build a healthier home for your customers going forward,” Noel stated following the WWYW certification process.
To track costs, Noel created a product list at the onset of design and discovered that, for many items, simply specifying one product over another produced a minimal to no cost differential. The EMF control cabinet had to be tested for the certification; an inexpensive, off-the-shelf meter provided the required information.
Noel estimates that he spent an additional $10,000 for the healthy home, resiliency, energy and smart home tech features on this 2,800-square-foot home, which had an asking price of $375,000. At that price point and current interest rates, that equates to a mortgage payment increase of about $50 per month, which can be recouped by the home owner through the anticipated energy savings.
The home, located in Ashton Plantation in Luling, La., received a 2020 Best in American Living Gold Award for Healthy Home and was a finalist for the 2020 NAHB Global Innovation Award International Home the Year. The 2021 awards programs are open until Sept. 10.
Latest from NAHBNow
Apr 18, 2025
Empowering New Home Buyers and Builders with Data and ExposureHomebuyers are increasingly relying on a research-driven approach to their new home buying experience. Homes.com is meeting that need with its new home marketplace.
Apr 17, 2025
Trade War Will Create Further Economic and Financial Market StressNAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz provided this economic and housing industry overview in the bi-weekly newsletter Eye On the Economy.
Latest Economic News
Apr 17, 2025
Housing Starts Decline Amid Economic UncertaintyConstrained housing affordability conditions due to elevated interest rates, rising construction costs and labor shortages led to a reduction in housing production in March.
Apr 16, 2025
Builder Confidence Levels Indicate Slow Start for Spring Housing SeasonGrowing economic uncertainty stemming from tariff concerns and elevated building material costs kept builder sentiment in negative territory in April, despite a modest bump in confidence likely due to a slight retreat in mortgage interest rates in recent weeks.
Apr 14, 2025
Where Do Builders and Remodelers Buy Building Products?The most common sources for products used in home building and remodeling are specialty retailers, lumber yards, and wholesale distributors, according to two recent NAHB surveys. The surveys include one of single-family homebuilders in the October 2024 NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) and one of remodelers in the Q3 2024 NAHB/Westlake Royal Remodeling Market Index (RMI). Both surveys asked respondents where they purchase building products, regardless of who ultimately purchases them (themselves or subcontractors).