Why should you make energy saving upgrades to your home

Why should you make energy saving upgrades to your home? The obvious reason is to save money on your electric and gas bill. Energy prices are soaring and many researchers believe we can expect to see prices double in the next ten years. Lets face it, the energy market lacks certainty and we have to work to reduce our dependence on them. So if you are someone who is planning to live in your home for a long period of time, making energy saving investments is a good idea to save money in the long run. But what if you plan on living in your home for a few years? Does it pay for you to make these energy saving upgrades? How will these upgrades effect the value or the ability to sell your home? Some bankers are now asking appraisers to look at energy saving upgrades such as energy star windows, appliances, insulation, and high efficiency heating systems and factor them in to the appraisal value. You can bet the real estate agents are going to be selling these upgrades to their clients as well. We also have to think about the implementation of the 2012 building code witch is just around the corner. It includes new energy efficient building standards for new homes that will undoubtedly make older, less efficient homes, even less desirable. Do you remember about ten years ago driving buy a car dealership and at the front of the lot you would see all of those beautiful suv's. If you look now you will see that they are all parked at the back of the lot and the fuel saving compact cars are all at the front of the lot. That's because the new car buyer wants efficiency. Today's car buyer is tomorrows home buyer. I mean why would I buy a car that gets 20 miles per gallon when I could get one that uses 30 miles per gallon or buy a home that uses 10,000 kilowatt hours a year when I can buy the same house that uses 5,000 kilowatt hours a year. Sure this home will cost me more initially, but my mortgage rate is fixed and my electric bill is not. You should see your home as an investment by thinking today of how it will present itself in tomorrow's market.