Poll: Energy Efficiency Is Homeowners’ Top ‘Unmet Need’
NEW YORK—Safety, affordability and privacy were unsurprisingly some of top housing needs identified in a recent national survey of more than 10,000 households by the Demand Institute. However, the top unmet housing concern was not as easily predicted: energy efficiency. The poll was intended to define a “satisfaction gap” between what respondents actually have and what they say is important. Survey respondents were given a list of 52 housing and community concerns and asked to rank them, on a scale of 1 to 10, by how important they felt the issues were and how much their current home satisfied these needs. The result: 71% of U.S. households polled placed a great deal of importance on energy efficiency, but only 35% felt their homes were energy efficient with low monthly utility costs. Based on these numbers, energy efficiency was the housing concern with the largest gap between the rates of importance and satisfaction—beating out consumer needs and wants for storage space, safe neighborhoods, affordability, landlord responsiveness, and more.
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