Finance the Future

Finance the Future aims to increase the availability of capital for home energy improvements, and promote transparency of home energy performance in the home purchase process.

What Is Finance the Future?

We are increasing the availability of innovative financing mechanisms, and incorporating home energy use into underwriting practices, especially at the point of sale, the industry can mitigate default risk and collateral risk, improve access to higher-quality building stock, and generate substantial savings for all homeowners of varying income levels.

Solar panels on the roof of a single family house.

Why It Matters

In spite of benefits of high performing homes, homeowners have been slow to invest in home energy upgrades. This is largely due to the lack of availability of capital for home energy improvements, and little transparency into home energy performance during the home purchase process. This means mortgage underwriters have not generally considered monthly energy costs or the value of energy improvements, and home appraisals have not reflected the value of energy improvements.

What We’re Doing

Finance the Future is focused on making home energy performance a factor in home buying decisions by convening technical experts and practitioners, generating thought leadership, and providing guidance to major market actors in order to increase the availability of capital for home energy improvements by scaling innovative financing mechanisms, improve equitable access to capital for low-income households (who, on average, spend 18% of their annual income on energy costs and are at greater financial risk when energy costs rise) by detailing specific recommendations to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Duty to Serve Ruling, and promoting transparency of home energy performance during the mortgage underwriting process and advising mortgage agencies.

Resources

Blog

How Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) Can Drive Solar Development

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Blog Series

FINANCE THE FUTURE — CLIMATE RESILIENCE

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Blog

It’s Time to Climate-Align Housing Finance, 2021

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Report

Build Back Better Homes: How to Unlock America's Single-Family Green Mortgage Market, 2021

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Blog

Transforming the Real Estate Market: Scaling Net-Zero Energy Homes at No Additional Up-front Cost, 2017

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Blog

Rebuilding America and the “New Normal” of Resilience, 2017

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Blog

FHA Should Reconsider Its About-Face—About PACE, 2017

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Blog

Energy and Affordability in Housing Finance, 2018

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Insight Brief

R-PACE: A Game-Changer for Net-Zero Energy Homes, 2017

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Article

We Need to Enhance Property Assessed Clean Energy Instead of Bringing It to a Standstill—Huffington Post

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Insight Brief

Scaling Home Energy Financing Products, 2017

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Insight Brief

Finance the Future, 2016

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Insight Brief

Driving Growth and Mitigating Risk: Standards for Residential PACE Programs, 2016

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Blog

Setting the PACE for Consumer Protection, 2016

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Blog

How Energy Efficiency Enables Stable Capital Markets, 2012

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