How to Find a “Green” House in Upstate New York

  |  December 6, 2011

Yeah, sure, we’d all like a house in harmony with the environment, lowered utility bills, clean indoor air…but where does one find such a place, especially in the age of greenwashing, when folks can claim a place is green just because it has locally-mined gravel in the driveway?

One place to start is with an Eco-Broker. Sounds like a scam, but I wrote about them years ago for the now defunct House & Garden, and even rifled through their curriculum materials, and I believe that they’re really useful. They can help you determine how inherently green a home might be, or show you what quick fixes can make a place greener. Here’s a list of the New York-based brokers. The problem is they’re downstate or way the heck upstate, in the Adirondacks, but the folks based in Cold Spring might be able to help with the search for a green home in upstate New York.

Listed Green is, as you can guess, a listing site for green homes. Easy to search, although I like a big map feature so I can place them all in front of me. When I last looked, there were four active listings: one in Long Island, one in the Adirondacks, one near Schenectady and one in Orange County. We’ll take a look at those later in the week. Does a decent job of rounding up the green features of a place, though leaves out both the taxes and if there are any tax breaks or other incentives for the purchaser.

Green Homes for Sale has the most New York State green properties — a whopping six — and is easy to use. I’ll be scouring it this week for listings. It includes taxes and annual utility costs, important stuff, especially with the expectation of green.

Green Home Finder exists. That’s all I can say about it. Doesn’t seem to have anything in New York State, although it does have rentals and green hotels…if you’re looking for something far from home.

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