A lack of specificity exists on whether likely homebuyers utilize home energy efficiency information in future home searches. This study addresses this gap using a visual choice experiment to sample 1538 intended homebuyers in the USA, and the preference for home attributes through a simplified real estate website. Each home presented on the website featured six attributes: price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, square footage, number of days on the market, energy efficiency, and a photo — each relative to participants’ initial specification of location, preferred price, number of bedrooms, and number of bathrooms. The respondents were assigned to one of six experimental conditions where energy information was provided as (i) estimated annual energy costs, (ii) home energy score (number only), (iii) home energy score along a continuum, (iv) estimated annual energy costs and energy score along a continuum, (v) home energy scores provided for only above average homes, and (vi) no energy information provided (control). We find that homebuyers are more likely to select energy efficient homes when presented with any form of energy efficiency information, with conditions that include home energy scores providing the greatest increase in energy efficiency. Furthermore, this preference for energy efficiency information persists even under less-than-ideal home searches. The preference for energy efficient homes is influenced by type of home and region with detached homebuyers and homebuyers in the Midwest US Census region more likely to select homes featuring higher energy efficiency scores. Finally, we find that rural homebuyers are more likely to prefer energy efficient homes over urban homebuyers.

对于可能的购房者在未来的房屋搜索中是否利用家庭能源效率信息缺乏明确性。本研究通过视觉选择实验对美国 1538 名有意购房者进行抽样，并通过简化的房地产网站对房屋属性进行偏好，从而解决了这一差距。网站上展示的每套房屋都有六个属性：价格、卧室数量、浴室数量、平方英尺、上市天数、能源效率和照片——每个属性都与参与者最初指定的位置、首选价格、卧室数量和浴室数量。受访者被分配到六种实验条件之一，其中能源信息提供为（i）估计的年度能源成本，（ii）家庭能源得分（仅数字），（iii）连续的家庭能源得分，（iv）估计的年度能源成本连续体的能源成本和能源得分，(v) 仅针对高于平均水平的家庭提供家庭能源得分，以及 (vi) 不提供能源信息（对照）。我们发现，当提供任何形式的能源效率信息时，购房者更有可能选择节能房屋，其中包括家庭能源评分可最大程度提高能源效率的条件。此外，即使在不太理想的家庭搜索中，这种对能源效率信息的偏好仍然存在。对节能房屋的偏好受到房屋类型和地区的影响，独立购房者和美国中西部人口普查地区的购房者更有可能选择能效得分较高的房屋。最后，我们发现农村购房者比城市购房者更有可能更喜欢节能住房。