The real estate appraiser may have another criterion on his or her list to evaluate when assessing a property. The new criterion is something near and dear to Austin developers, construction firms, and city governments: the green building thing.

At the end of June, 2008, a number of real estate appraisers from all over the US convened in Austin to learn how environmentally conscious building materials can change the value of a property. The week long seminar was run by the Appraisal Institute out of Chicago. It focused on green building in the commercial property field and there are plans in the making to hold another that focuses on residential properties in the near future.

The seminar examined sustainable elements in building and where to set the bar for putting a value on green building elements with few guidelines to go by. As green building becomes more popular and even mandated in some regions, a new set of criteria and valuation has to be development. As Jim Amorin, president-elect of the Austin regional Appraisal Institute stated, “we have been actively developing coursework to help our members understand how green is going to impact the properties we are appraising.”

Appraisers will have to start looking at such features as highly efficient heating and air conditioning systems, alternate uses of energy, water savings, and energy saving lighting and fixtures as factors that will effect the value of a property. But there remain questions for future consideration – how will the investment in green building pay off in the long run, how to create a reliable way to value green buildings with so little data to go on, and what green building elements add the most value to a building? Questions that will need answers soon.