Evan Little, LEED Green Associate

Recently listed for a sales price of $459,900, 236 Coral Rose has gone into back-up offers on June 23rd of 2011. This is a standard sale, end unit and arguably the best located unit in Ashton Green. 236 Coral Rose is a Model B - Sutton.

Homes that sold or leased in Whispering Glen and Ashton Green during the 1st quarter of 2011 between January 1st and March 31st. Find more updates and information here, http://whisperingglenashtongreenhomes.blogspot.com/

Whispering Glen - SOLD

Address Sales Price $/Ft SQ' DOM Floor Plan

16 Gingerwood $500,000 $334 1499 207 A

104 Roadrunner $505,000 $314 1610 377 E

Total $502,500 $324 1555 292

Whispering Glen - LEASED

Address Sales Price $/Ft SQ' DOM Floor Plan

82 Gingerwood $2,700 $1.80 1499 127 A

42 Gingerwood $2,950 $1.65 1787 8 F

24 Gingerwood $2,350 $1.53 1533 191 C

Total $2,667 $1.66 1606 109

Ashton Green - SOLD

Address Sales Price $/Foot SQ' DOM Floor Plan

217 Danbrook $429,000 $371 1155 215 B

229 Coral Rose $483,500 $365 1324 185 E

Total $456,250 $368 1239 200

Ashton Green - LEASED

Address Sales Price $/Foot SQ' DOM Floor Plan

266 Coral Rose $2,300 $1.95 1181 18 B

238 Coral Rose $2,450 $1.85 1324 48 E

114 Coral Rose $1,495 $1.82 822 13 A

122 Coral Rose $2,475 $2.10 1181 28 D

Total $2,180 $1.93 1127 27

http://whisperingglenashtongreenhomes.blogspot.com/

There's not much of it, but there's a growing demographic that are hopeful that more Orange County Cities will start embracing smart, infill growth as soon as possible. Currently, all of the Orange County Cities that I'm aware of have unrealistic density restrictions and ESPECIALLY parking restrictions. I'm hopeful that I see a lot of city staff at BIA-OC's upcoming event shown below!

I've been fortunate to work with developers who have a lot of experience in how a city can evolve into a more walkable city with greater connectivity and prosperity. It's uncomfortable for a city to go from sprawling tract homes and strip centers that require a car to get to any basic service to a walkable, well connected community where someone can live with just a pair of tennis shoes, like many people my age (28) are anxious to experience. Orange County must endure more traffic and density before people can live without a car and before light rail and improved public transportation will make sense. If walking or riding a bike can be popular in cities with significantly worse weather, how can this strategy not thrive here?

Either residents need to demand this type of living or Orange County needs elected officials and their staff need to wake up and lead. It's frustrating to see planning commission seats, redevelopment agencies or city council positions used as just a stepping stone for a career in politics instead of working hard to improve OC Cities.

Orange County, especially South Orange County, was designed around the automobile and cheap transportation fuel. Electric cars offer a promising hope, but until we get to hydrogen or another renewable transportation energy than we must recognize that all resources are finite and we must adjust our use of them to reduce how dramatic the change is when the tap runs dry.

Northern and Coastal Orange County Cities like Orange, Fullerton, Anaheim or parts of Newport Beach and Dana Point have a significant advantage as the County moves deeper into the Peak Oil Age. Orange especially has a very well planned city around Old Towne Orange with a Train Station, central plaza and grid designed streets.

Orange of all cities should be leading the charge towards the future of Orange County and they even have an affluent college university, Chapman University, to help support the transition. Poor City leadership and naive senior residents who continue to show up at planning meetings to fight density, traffic and Chapman's aggressive expansion throughout Old Towne Orange. Well guess what narrow minded Orange residents, you're making real estate less desirable for private developers by reducing density and requiring unrealistic parking restrictions. Developers can't make money building anything in Orange. This gives Chapman University more time to gobble up more and more property since there's little to no competition from private developers.

Thankfully we do have a least a few projects thanks to Olson Homes & City Ventures, but how many projects will builders be able to snatch-up and will this tear the peak oil band aid quickly enough. On sale now in Downtown Santa Ana by City Ventures is their Santa Ana Lofts. Shown below is one of their playful lofts with a dramatic stair case from the 1st to the 3rd floor where the main living space is found. No 2nd floor. Straight up to the top and you feel like you're in a real downtown, which is what many Orange County natives like myself fantasize about.

After 347 long days on the market Westminster's 1st LEED Certified home has been purchased. In Orange County, green homes have struggled to gain any significant market share or be taken seriously by the County's major players in the building world. Other than Olson Homes of Seal Beach & it's rival offshoot, City Ventures, there has only been a handful of small speculative builders that have braved green building in resource devouring Orange County. Currently, there are less than 100 LEED Certified homes in Orange County with the majority of them being done by Olson Homes in tracts of around 30 units or one offs here and there by smaller builders.

Aside from Olson Homes' repeated success in Orange County with their LEED-ND infill projects at Depot Walk in Old Towne Orange, Heritage Walk in Fullerton, and still for sale Sycamore Walk and Mosaic Walk in Garden Grove, luxury home builder Tresor Properties has also been successful with it's 1st LEED Certified beachfront spec home in Laguna Beach that sold earlier this year for a cool $11,500,000 after just 7 days on the market.

So why did this Westminster home sit on the market for nearly a year before it sold? Did the design team have bad taste? Was it not promoted well enough? Was it because buyer's who want LEED Homes have no access to an efficient online search to even find them? Maybe it was due to the demographics of the city it was built in or simply the location? Is it because there is just flat out no desire for LEED homes?

Personally, I feel the greatest contributing factor was the economy. The few single family spec homes that have hit the market in the last 4 years have been faced with the most challenging market that anyone living has ever seen.

Ugly Design? Absolutely not! From sidewalk to master bedroom this home was well designed, has nice finish materials and fits the needs of nearly every home shopper searching in it's price range. At least aesthetically. There are no wacky paint colors, funky counter tops or strange lighting fixtures. The builder's taste was tasteful and just right for the targeted demographic.

Poor Promotion? I'm not sure how much love this 2 home development received from press, but I don't think it was able to reach as many green folks. However there have been similar green homes that have received hundreds of visitors and even a whole show that revolves around the construction of a luxury LEED Certified home in LA on the Discovery Channel's Alter Eco and those homes failed to find a legit buyer willing to pay a little extra for the green improvements. So it's possible that there the promotion and outreach may not have been as significant as it could be, but it's more evident that successful promotion has not worked for other green homes in Orange County.

Not Search Friendly Online? Would a home buyer who wants to buy a LEED home who's shopping in Laguna Beach decide to live in Westminster instead because there's a LEED Certified home? Most likely not. For the buyer who's shopping in Westminster, how many of them understand what it means to have a green home? If the answer is not many than getting a functional online search will not make sense until there is a more substantial supply of LEED Certified or green homes. I don't this effected finding a buyer, but it is effecting appraisal, data that supports green housing, etc.. [read more about greening the MLS here]

Bad Location? Yes, I do think this was a poor location to build a LEED Certified home or any higher value home for that matter. It's on a busy street, adjacent to a large concrete river and is surrounded by homes that are of less value. Culturally, Westminster does not lend itself to green building the way a coastal city like San Clemente, Huntington Beach or even Costa Mesa might. Location and culture are huge factors for the 1st round of green homes.

No Love for LEED? Brand recognition for the USGBC's LEED Certification has steadily grown due to it's wide spread expectance in all building sectors like retail, commercial, municipal and especially schools. Companies have policies that all of their buildings must be LEED Certified, the State and Federal Government has also made a commitment to do all of their new buildings LEED. I think there is an added incentive for LEED as it stands for quality and a safer investment than a standard home as we move into an error where energy is significantly more expensive.

Fisker of Orange County opened next to the Best Buy off the 5 Freeway at 16163 Lake Forest Drive, Irvine, CA 92618. See map people for exact location, if you're not familiar with the area and visit Fisker of Orange County at www.fiskeroforangecounty.com

Orange County, CA based Fisker Automotive is working towards releasing their hybrid named the Karma seen below on Road & Track

Yeah... I know, it's not a house or anything that relates directly to green building, but I'm REALLY looking forward to the day when electric vehicle ownership introduces some radically different ways of managing the supply and demand of energy in California. With an outdated electrical grid and a Country on the verge of financial collapse. So back to positive innovation... imagine that your electric vehicle is capable of trading energy at predetermined settings that you've determined are reasonable. Selling energy from your car to the grid during peak hours when demand is high for a lucrative cost per kilowatt and charging your car back up, taking power from the grid and storing it in your electric vehicle, during the evening when demand has cooled off at a drastically lower cost per kilowatt. This could very well be a reality if residents speak up and get passionate about common sense and what some of our logical next moves aught to be in regards to energy. Although Fisker's Karma is a plug-in hybrid and still requires dinosaur blood to go 0-60 in just under 6 seconds, it's poised to make an impressive 1st showing in the hands of it's CEO, Henrik Fisker.

For all the positive things that a handful of employees are doing at large utility companies, the monopolized utility companies receive a tremendous amount of money from tax payers and municipalities to either re-nvent themselves and/or to a certain extent, put themselves out of business. So you see, it's not just big oil that can expect to see a dip in their profits when electric vehicles begin to take flight... AGAIN (Watch Who Killed the Electric Car). Well... maybe not the oil companies, but the auto mechanics that rely on drama queens like the high maintenance internal combustion engines to provide their livelihood, the service stations at the corner quickie mart that will no longer be in demand because their petrol junky customers will now be able to get their fix in the safety of their own home, and many other ICE related businesses will suffer as we move into the electric car age. New careers will evolve, of course and is movement is without a doubt a positive move for the middle class. I'm thrilled about the idea that someone will be able to create their own electricity at home or work via wind, solar, etc.. and choose to either charge their car, sell it the power back to the grid, or use it to watch an important TV show about America's next sweetheart who's indulging in her newly appointed fame as a result of their sex tape that "accidentally" leaking out recently.

And you thought this was just going to be a Fisker shout out about their new showroom, didn't you?