Local Real Estate Developer takes a stand on climate change
In response to the threats of climate change and demand for sustainable, eco-friendly homes in Southern Oregon, local real estate developer, KDA Homes, pledges to focus on sustainable development practices in all of the homes they build.
“Our team has spent a lot of time brainstorming what we can do as developers to address the issues of climate change, the rising cost of living and wage stagnation in the Rogue Valley.”, said Laz Ayala, General Manager at KDA Homes. “Goods and services are not sustainable if they can’t be afforded. Likewise, housing is not sustainable if it’s not affordable. Affordability to us means building housing that falls below the median price point. In Ashland, many of our homes are priced as much as 25% below Ashland’s median of $450,000”.
However, making housing more financially accessible is only one aspect of housing affordability. KDA Homes is addressing the cost of utilities by installing solar panels in all of their homes allowing homeowners to produce more energy from the sun than they consume, saving thousands of dollars every year.
“This is not only an appealing feature for our homeowners but the socially responsible thing to do for our planet”, added Mark Knox, Land Use Planner at KDA Homes.
The KDA team is taking energy-saving one step further in its latest developments by providing shared electric vehicles for the communities to use.
“According to AAA, the average annual cost of car ownership is around $12,000. By providing an electric vehicle that homeowners can check-out when they need a vehicle, we hope to help these families reduce down to single-car households or eliminate the need to own a car altogether. When you couple that with the energy bills that these homeowners are no longer paying, you are looking at annual savings of up to $15,000. This represents 33% of the areas median income that folks can keep or spend in our local economy.”, said Laz Ayala.
The solar installations and electric vehicle programs are part of an ongoing effort to utilize sustainable building and innovation practices at KDA Homes. However, these efforts are also being made in the overall design of each home they build.
“Our homes are designed to maximize the use of space and include Earth Advantage and NW Energy Star Certified features. We design each home with our aging population in mind, focusing on accessibility and ensuring they are Lifelong Housing certified whenever possible.”, added Dave Decarlow, Construction Manager at KDA Homes.
The KDA Homes team hopes that they will not stand alone in these efforts and strive to become a local leader toward the adoption of sustainable development practices throughout Southern Oregon.
“We are encouraged by what we are seeing in the sustainable development world and hope to see more developers throughout the region adopting these practices. Climate change is real, wage stagnation is real and the rising cost of living is real. We can’t control any of those factors, but we can take advantage of the technology available today to address these challenges.”, said Laz Ayala.
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About KDA Homes
With over 100 years of combined experience, KDA Homes is committed to being pioneers in smarter home design leading the way for sustainability in residential development and green building. The company approaches every project with the end goal in mind – building a home for a new community to grow. KDA is a proud member of the Ashland community.
