Home buyers want more information on energy usage. Utilities can help.

New research from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, done with the National Association of Realtors and the data firm 257, finds that home buyers care a lot about energy efficiency, but rarely get useful information about it when shopping for a house. More than 80% of recent buyers said efficiency mattered to their decision, but only 34% of real estate agents thought it mattered to buyers that much. As a result, agents often don't mention efficiency features in listings.

That gap shows up in the data. Even though roughly one in four U.S. homes has a solar system, heat pump (a heating and cooling system that uses electricity more efficiently than a furnace or standard AC), or other clean-energy feature, only 8.3% of listings last year mentioned energy efficiency at all. Heat pumps went unmentioned in the vast majority of listings that had one, and rooftop solar was left out of listings a third of the time. That silence has a price: listings that do mention solar sold for about 2% more (roughly $10,000 on a median-priced home), and those mentioning heat pumps sold for 0.6-1% more (about $2,300 to $3,900).

The researchers argue utilities should step in with training, fact sheets and bill-estimate tools for agents and buyers, since agents often lack the technical know-how. If that happens, homeowners buying or selling could eventually see more of these features clearly listed and valued, and get better guidance on rebates and equipment choices right when they move in.