Here’s to the problem-solvers

August 23, 2023

The Momo Focus is a biweekly roundup of news about the global transition to sustainable homebuilding.

Hi.

We read the news.

We feel the rain. And the heat.

We have watched with horror and sadness the fires in Lahaina. And Canada.

And indeed, some days the world is too much with us.

But most days we carry on problem-solving. It’s the human thing to do.

Besides, there are so many reasons for optimism. …

There’s Al Gore saying at the end of his most recent TED talk that “if we stay at true net zero, in as little as 30 years, half of all the human caused CO2 will come out of the atmosphere into the upper ocean and the trees and vegetation.”

There’s Pablo van der Lugt, describing the promise of bamboo as a building material and decarbonizing superplant.

There’s the Inflation Reduction Act. One year after its passage, the bill has generated north of 100,000 jobs, led to a clean-energy manufacturing boom, and accelerated the electrification of transportation and the decarbonization of electricity.

There’s Dr. Saul Griffith — MIT grad, entrepreneur, and renewable-energy advocate (he was an advisor on the Inflation Reduction Act) — who’s calculated that “42 percent of all emissions in the U.S. economy come down to decisions that are made in everybody’s homes.” According to Griffith, if we heat our homes, and our water, with efficient electric machines that are powered by renewables, we’ll stay on track to reach our climate targets and “buy ourselves enough time for the big science funding to come in and create the solutions for steel, for long-distance air travel, for agriculture.”

We’re going to make the “green homes” bit easy. Every Momo home will be solar-ready, efficiently insulated, and warmed and cooled by heat pumps.

Credits where credits are due

Speaking of the IRA, Canary Media has a good rundown of how to take advantage of the bill’s incentives and tax credits.

Beware of falling fish

It should go without saying, but we promise that your solar-equipped Momo home will never experience a power outage caused by falling fish. Like this town did.

I see a line of homes and they’re all painted white

Researchers at Purdue announced the creation of the whitest paint ever made. Which is cool. Like, way cool. Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering says that, “If you were to use this paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet, we estimate that you could get a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. That’s more powerful than the central air conditioners used by most houses.”

The home economy

Mortgage rates

Bill McBride gets into the weeds in two posts: Lawler: Is The “Natural” Rate of Interest Back to Pre-Financial Crisis Levels? and The “New Normal” Mortgage Rate Range. His take: “Absent a recession and/or another sustained financial market ‘scare,’ it seems that interest rates will be significantly higher than most people had been predicting for a sustained period of time.”

Housing industry

While sales of existing homes are at a 6-month low, Eye on Housing reports, construction of single family homes has risen. Another Eye on Housing article reports that:

A lack of existing inventory and solid demand for housing helped offset rising mortgage rates and push single-family production higher in July, even as builders continue to grapple with elevated construction and financing costs as well as a lack of skilled labor.

Despite the obstacles, this state of affairs may bode well for builders, according to John Burns Research and Consulting:

With those low mortgage rate golden handcuffs keeping a huge chunk of the existing home market in cryogenic stasis, the new home sector has thrived. There is even a case to be made for continued good times even if resale listings begin to rise and mortgage rates remain elevated.

For buyers, it’s a different story. McBride writes that houses are nearing their lowest levels of affordability since 2007.

Blog on

Mike McAllister covers the emerging world of future-ready home construction for us. Here are his recent posts:

Cheers,

Jeff

Jeff Williams is the chief marketing officer of Momo Homes.

P.S. “Electrification is anti-inflationary”

“If you electrify everything in an American household … when you buy solar cells and put them on your roof, you’re paying for 20 years of energy up front. So then you’re paying a fixed interest payment. You’ve inflation-proofed your energy inputs. … This energy transition is the substitution of finance for fuel.”

– Saul Griffith, in conversation with Dave Roberts on the 18 August Volts podcast.

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