http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8524422San Jose's first "green certified" subdivision
By Matt Nauman
Mercury News
Article Launched: 03/10/2008 05:54:16 PM PDT
For a housing market wracked with uncertainty, green is good.
That was on display Monday when Pinn Brothers Fine Homes unveiled the first single-family subdivision in San Jose to meet a new standard for green homes. Most of what makes them green is hard to see - features such as water-saving shower heads and thicker insulation in the attic and walls.
But the integrated solar roofs - standard on all 51 homes at Orchard Heights in San Jose's Evergreen area and on 19 homes at Falcon Place in Willow Glen - are an obvious signal that something green is afoot.
Last weekend, the first nine of the new homes at Orchard Heights (3,600 square foot or larger homes starting at around $1 million) went on sale, and seven were sold. And this in a fragile housing market where sales of new homes fell to a 13-year low nationwide in January and sales in Santa Clara and San Benito counties dropped 45 percent last year.
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