Hi Desert Real Estate Forum

I recently received a “red alert” from the California Association of Realtors regarding

AB 2678. A “red alert” is a call to action for Realtors to contact politicians in order to express our opinions on upcoming legislation. After reviewing AB 2678 I felt it was important enough to share with the consumer in hopes that you will get involved as well.

Assembly Bill 2678 (Nunez) proposes among other things that all homes and commercial property in California have an energy audit at point-of-sale and that mandatory energy efficiency investments be made. While this may seem like a great idea and many, myself included, applaud the goals of this bill, it appears to fall short of its own objectives.

This bill should be strongly opposed on 2 important points. First, this bill will have an enormous negative impact on housing affordability in California. Requiring point-of-sale improvements has the potential to add thousands of dollars to already costly California real estate transactions. Who will pay for this? It is you the consumer as the costs of the audit and improvements will be added to the sales price of the home costing the buyer thousands of dollars, or be paid from the proceeds of the seller, costing the seller thousands of dollars. The mandated audit alone may cost up to $400. According to the California Association of Realtors, every $1000 added to the cost of a home disqualifies 26,000 potential home owners from purchasing that property. In a declining market the last thing a buyer or seller needs is a more costly real estate transaction.

Secondly, research shows that only 22% of the properties most in need of energy efficiency retrofits will actually be sold by 2020. This bill calls for the formation of a new government agency to oversee an expensive yet ineffective program that will not correct energy efficiency issues in a majority of the homes most in need.

It looks like our legislators have again resorted to throwing money and bureaucracy at a problem in order to prove they are doing something when, if fact, all they are doing is punishing the consumer.

What can you do? Contact Assembly Member Paul Cook and express your opinions. You can view the bill and express your concerns at Assemblyman Cook’s website http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/a65/index.aspx?page=home