Los Angeles Paves the Way for Solar Neighborhoods
For home-buyers in Los Angeles, there’s a new feature that may pique your interest: solar energy systems included in the asking price.Los Angeles-based KB Homes has marketed solar panel home bundles for years, but they’re upping the ante with their first all-solar-powered community in Antelope Valley.
The grand opening of Arroyo, KB’s solar neighborhood, boasts half-acre sites that have been designed not only to reduce utility charges but your overall costs of homeownership. This desert ecosystem is ideal for new ranch-style homes that receive an abundance of clear and sunny days.
Along with lessening the homeowner’s impact on the environment, solar homes cut down on energy costs tremendously.
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Historically, Lancaster residents have reported spending over $200 per month on utilities, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Owners of KB’s single-story homes with three to four bedrooms could expect to pay energy bills averaging $94 per month, and in some cases, as low as $46 per month.
The idea that buying a new home with solar power included as a standard feature is undoubtedly one of the most exciting propositions facing new home buyers in this market today. Highlights of these ranch-style homes include three car garages, up to three bathrooms and as many as five bedrooms.
And with six floor plan choices ranging in size from 1,837 to 3,037 square feet, it becomes even more intriguing considering these homes start in the low $200,000′s. Finally, such forward-thinking helps Californians continue to lead the way in embracing solar power.
In fact, the state of California has had the highest response from homeowners ready to adopt solar panel installations, mostly because they essentially pay your electric bills. There are also generous rebates in Los Angeles, enabling thousands of homeowners to go solar.
To make solar even more affordable, the Los Angeles Business Council, or LABC, along with UCLA researchers, Sierra Club and others, propose a solar program that would create $500 million for Los Angeles investment, plus nearly 1,000 high-paying green jobs every year for at least the next five years, and all of this with minimal impact on the state’s ratepayers.
This is not even including the advantages of LA rebates and federal tax incentives.
But beyond cost savings, projects like these set a stellar an example for other builders and neighborhoods to know that they, too, can help move the nation along toward helping the environment.
The Arroyo community is located in northern Los Angeles County, at the western tip of the Mojave Desert. The two largest cities nearby are Lancaster and Palmdale, just north of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Posted on July 20th in Solar News by Brittany.