Guide provides roadmap to gauge solar’s affect on home prices

Numerous studies over the years have reached what should be an obvious conclusion: Installing solar on homes intrinsically increases their value.

Now the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has tackled the all-important follow-up question: How much of an increase will typical homeowners see?

In the latest guide, How Owning a Solar System Impacts My Home Value: A Guide to Valuing Residential Solar Energy Systems, SEIA says homeowners (and the installers who love them) should focus on the projected income of the system over its typical lifetime, a calculation Sandia National labs and Energy Sense Finance say is the right way to determine solar’s tangible effect on home values.

“It’s critical both buyers and sellers go into a home sale well-educated, armed with the facts and figures needed to feel confident in their solar investment,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “However, this guide shouldn’t just be a homeowner resource. With over 1.4 million residential solar systems in the U.S., this is a must-read for every stakeholder in the residential housing market, from mortgage brokers to realtors, across the country.”

One of Hopper’s stated priorities since taking SEIA’s leadership position has been to increase the organization’s outreach to consumers, especially in light of polls that show, depending on which poll you cite, between 85% and 90% of the general public support further deployment of solar electricity.

Interested parties can find the guide on SEIA’s website, and the organization promises it will be updated with additional tools as the residential market continues to grow and more information becomes available.