In 2016, Portland City Council unanimously passed the Home Energy Score Ordinance, requiring the disclosure of a Home Energy Score and Report when a home is publicly advertised for sale in Portland. Home Energy Score requirements went into effect January 1, 2018.
The ordinance directed the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to report to Portland City Council after 30 months and evaluate the results of the program, including accuracy of disclosed information, rates of compliance, program impacts, and recommendations for ongoing review. BPS recently completed the evaluation report. View the report:
The report finds that the Home Energy Score program has met, and in some cases exceeded, staff and stakeholder expectations. The real-estate market, for the most part, has adapted to the new requirements and residential real-estate transactions have continued without disruption. The compliance rate reached 60 percent in 2019 and was on the rise due to additional enforcement actions and direct follow-up with non-compliant home sellers beginning in the second half of that year.
More than 20,000 Home Energy Scores are now in the Portland real-estate market, providing unprecedented transparency, insight, and data about residential energy performance and carbon emissions. The Home Energy Score program has revealed the areas of opportunity for Portland’s housing stock to become safer, healthier, more efficient, and less air- and carbon-polluting. The Home Energy Score program has become a model that multiple Oregon jurisdictions are poised to follow. The City of Milwaukie just launched its own scoring requirements on October 1.
The Home Energy Score program provides a solid foundation from which to scale residential energy upgrades. These upgrades are a critical next step in improving the health, comfort, affordability, and safety of Portland homes, while reducing carbon emissions necessary to meet our collective climate action goals.
You can learn more about the value home energy labeling provides to home buyers in a recent article by GreenTech media.