Cindy King is a principal broker with Hasson Company Realtors.

Most would agree making improvements to your home increases its value. Too often, making energy efficient upgrades is overlooked as a way to increase the value of your home.

Sure, adding insulation in the attic isn’t immediately satisfying compared to installing Quartz counter-tops, but if the money you save by installing attic insulation pays for those counter tops, it is much more satisfying.

Making your home more energy efficient not only saves you money, it also increases the market value of your home. According to the Appraisal Institute (www.appraisalinstitute.org), an energy efficient home can be valued $20 higher for every $1 in annual energy savings. This means if your green remodeled home uses $1,000 less energy per year than a comparable home in the area, the value of your home would increase by $20,000.

To use my home as an example of one improvement I could do, I live in a home built in the 1930s and my heat source is an oil furnace. Have you checked the price of heating oil? It is $3.99 per gallon. I really REALLY love the feeling of my oil heat. I’m warm and cozy all winter long — but writing that check each year is getting harder and harder to do. My pocketbook prompted me to call a local energy audit company to check out my digs and see what they found. I will walk you through the furnace efficiency, one of many tests they ran on my behalf.

After evaluating my home as it relates to size, heating, basement, usage, etc., they calculated that my furnace is 62 percent efficient. Let’s make this simple: 62 percent of my heating dollar goes to heat my house, the rest goes up and out the chimney. That’s $1.51 per gallon I wave good-bye to, or $604 a year. Oh Lordy it’s time … and this is just the heating system.

I use this heating example to keep the idea flowing as simply as possible. Doing an energy remodel for my home will cost a bit upfront — perhaps around $12,000 — but the savings down the road will more than pay for it for years and years to come. Back to you and the green energy market …

Recent sales data from the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) in Portland (you know, the RAINY side of the state) showed that certified green homes (received a third-party green certification), sold for an average of $223 per square foot and comparable standard homes sold for an average of $196 per square foot. The green home sold for 13-plus percent higher. They also sold faster with being on the market for a third fewer days.

For our area, does NorthWest Crossing come to mind? It does for me. I would really enjoy calculating the total energy costs saved on those homes. Some people may say the building guidelines are stringent, but the overall benefit impacts all homeowners and energy costs. Of course there are other builders in the area who build energy-efficient homes all around Central Oregon.

However, the neighborhood that is proven to have higher re-sales and maintain its luster is NorthWest Crossing.

Lucky for all of us, you do not need to live in a particular neighborhood to obtain your own personal benefits from performing green upgrades to your residence.

Another study I read that was conducted in Seattle showed the value of energy efficient improvements and ROI (return on investment) for the seller. One thing that stuck out at me was the average size of a green home was 25 percent smaller than “older” or traditional-type homes, yet sold for 4 percent more. Looking at it from a dollar per square foot more, they sold for 37 percent more.

Building green can stimulate the economy in so many ways. My prediction is that we shall continue to see the green energy movement expand and continue to improve the qualities of water heaters, heating systems, etc. As time progresses, it is becoming a reality that home buyers will want smaller houses and be as efficient as possible, both with usage of space and energy use. (Reading between the lines: Sell your larger home sooner than later!) It is the benefits you don’t physically see that add tremendous value to an energy-efficient home; that is, until you get your utility bill. My friend just moved into a new stylish, energy efficient home and her gas bill was less than $30. Yup. $30.

I’m not smart enough to go into the tons of emissions we will save and the scientific benefits of energy-efficiency. I am simply a real estate agent seeing this trend continue to broaden and expand, and the payoffs are for everyone to enjoy. It’s really quite exciting, especially if you break it down into manageable chunks.

Time to see about upgrading to a gas furnace. Stay tuned!