Holding on in Las Vegas–Pulte Goes Solar
Scott Wright, Pulte Division President, Las Vegas Southwest Area
Pulte Las Vegas Division President, Southwest Area, Scott Wright
We journied off the Strip today, into the jaws of the nation’s housing debacle, miles and miles of developed and undeveloped home building lots, ready for phantom customers with phantom downpayments and phantom household incomes that come of secure employment and prudent management of their means.
What’s striking about the new-home stock in Las Vegas is its lack of distinction. Rooftops stretch across rough desert terrain toward the snow-tipped ridges that surround the valley. So when a home builder finds something, anything, to distinguish its offerings from the masses of other builders offering mostly oversized neo-Mediterranean bungalows, it’s noteworthy.
Pulte Homes has struck on such a position in two of its newer communities that got underway with sales since the market seized up in late 2006, early 2007, and gotten worse since.
From poured insulation to tankless water heaters to metered water and energy use, Pulte’s partnership on a Department of Energy grant with University of Nevada at Las Vegas gives the company an edge as it addresses the challenges division president Scott Wright mentions above.
- Ecohomemagazine’s Jennifer Goodman has this analysis of the features of the Villa Trieste home community, and details of the UNLV grant.
This take from the Ecohomemagazine story:
Venezia Model at Villa Trieste
Each Villa Trieste home will feature a SunPower SunTile roof-integrated solar-electric power system and a wall-mounted “touch-screen dashboard” that will connect to a solar and energy meter to allow homeowners to see how much energy they are generating and using in real time.
“As energy prices increase in the future, homeowners will have security in knowing that they will be less affected than most others,” said Scott Wright, president of Pulte’s Las Vegas division, adding that the dwellings come with a three-year heating, cooling, and temperature comfort guarantee. “Villa Trieste is kind of like our version of the Toyota Prius, we like to refer to Villa Trieste as being a community of hybrid homes.”
Wright said the homes in Villa Trieste, ranging from 1,487 to 1,960 square feet and priced from the $200s, will cost substantially less to operate than traditional homes. The advanced construction methods used in Villa Trieste should reduce homeowners’ electrical and gas bills by more than 60 percent, versus a 15 percent reduction for a typical Energy Star home.
They’re doing something right. Within an hour’s time on the afternoon of Martin Luther King day holiday observances, no fewer than 6 groups of prospective buyers toured the new community’s three models. That’s more traffic than we saw going on in any other neighborhood out here yesterday.
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