When Housing Market Rebounds, Green Building May Boom

"Read the morning papers, and it's hard not to feel that the American housing industry is on the brink of the apocalypse. Home prices are plummeting, in some areas as much as 40%. However, it's exactly the gravity of the situation that some housing analysts see as the opportunity of a lifetime -- the chance to jolt us into embracing green housing."

"Even some large commercial home builders -- forced into hibernation by the real-estate bust -- have begun sketching plans for a decidedly different generation of American houses. 'Until recently, the publicly traded home builders saw green building as a niche market best taken up by smaller players,' says David Wood, director of the Boston College Institute for Responsible Investing. 'But with the down market, this could be a good time for them to differentiate themselves from competitors.'"