Thursday, October 1, 2026
Local residents urged the Tumwater City Council to pass an ordinance that would require energy score audits for houses being sold.
The ordinance, which was addressed at a city council meeting on Sept. 16, would require home sellers to provide information about a house’s energy performance to help buyers make more informed decisions about the house’s energy costs.
A registered energy score assessor would have to conduct the audit by determining a building’s Home Energy Score, a standardized rating system developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. The cost of the audit is between $150 and $300.
“This ordinance would be an easy and a cost-free way for the City of Tumwater to reduce energy use and greenhouse,” said resident Charlotte Persons, one of five people who spoke about the issue during the public comment portion of the council meeting.
“The $200 cost of a home energy audit is negligible when hundreds of thousands of dollars are changing hands during a home sale.”
Resident Lynn Fitz-Hugh said the best time to do such repairs is during sale.
“When a house sells is the easiest time after its actual construction to get these changes made. Because buyers may choose a house with a better score over another house, it incentivizes sellers when they pick things to fix before sale,” Fitz-Hugh said.
She added, “The real estate agents have even agreed to this in principle but (they) have been clear that it must be passed countywide for it to function for them,” she said.
Fitz-Hugh also expressed impatience over what she sees as the city’s lack of progress with its climate plans.
“We are tired of waiting. Tumwater passed the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan in 2021, as well as a climate emergency declaration. And yet, little has happened on the 72 items in it,” Fitz-Hugh said.
The Thurston Climate Mitigation Collaborative (TCMC), a county-wide partnership formed in 2023 to address climate change in the region, drafted an ordinance as part of its 2024 initiatives.
The passing of the ordinance across the county has stalled for various reasons. For Tumwater, the delay has to do with enforcement issues, according to TCMC.
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JnNwmn
One brilliant expensive idea is to place heat pump hotwater heaters in homes. A plumber told me that the units are expensive and "good luck getting parts" if you have to. There would be more headway in climate mitigation if the City offered $300 rebates on residential heat pumps, insulation upgrades, windows, etc.
Monday, September 22, 2025 Report this
Me_In_Oly
I'm a real estate agent who lives in Olympia. Those who spoke at the city council meeting would be surprised how often "minor" repairs of even a few hundred dollars jeopardize real estate transactions. The $150 to $300 audit cost may be "negligible" to you, Ms. Persons, but they're not your dollars, are they? The audit cost, no doubt, will result in a list of items that sellers will be required to fix, at additional cost.
Yes, sellers typically benefit from an increase in home value over the period of their ownership, but sellers pay an excise tax of 1.6% on an average house just for the privilege of selling their home, plus negotiated commission costs. Military members moving to their next duty station often do not have "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in equity, and in the last couple of years, it has not been uncommon for military members to have to convert their homes to rentals because selling their homes, after selling costs, would put them in the red.
Home sales in Washington are as-is; generally, sellers are not required to make repairs, though buyers can request them, and homes that are in better condition are more attractive to buyers. Due diligence is also a buyer's responsibility, and buyers are welcome to conduct inspections such as energy audits, if important to them.
Homes in Thurston County are not affordable; they are attainable. My personal property taxes have increased 29.4% in four years. Further, I have heard that existing energy-efficiency requirements for new-construction homes add about $40,000 to the cost of each home. Owners do not come close to recouping these costs, which are simply the cost of compliance.
The bottom line is that homes continue to get more expensive. Adding additional costs to homeownership may feel good when you're spending other people's money, Ms. Fitz-Hugh and Ms. Persons, but the outcome is higher barriers to entry in an already expensive market. If real-estate agents agree with the increased bureaucracy and cost you espouse, kindly cite your source.
Monday, September 22, 2025 Report this
Southsoundguy
This is an idiotic idea that will clog up the market and probably increase prices that already need to come down about 80%.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Report this
Yeti1981
This is a terrible idea and will drive up the cost of housing even more.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Report this