Home Innovation Insights

Insider insights on what's going on in the home building industry.

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December 16, 2022

Deep Dive into Chapter 5: Lot Design, Preparation, And Development

Constructing a green building is a process that should begin well before the foundation is poured and settled. Chapter 5 of the ICC 700-2020 National Green Building Standard® (NGBS) awards and acknowledges the careful selection, design, preparation, and development of a lot intended to be the site of a certified green building.

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Building Codes, Building Practices, Energy Performance, Green Building, Marketing, Affordable Homes

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December 12, 2022

Tips for a Simple & Pain-Free Final QA Review

Are you ready to submit your NGBS Green project for final review? To make the process simple and pain-free, there are a few things you need to remember.

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December 9, 2022

WaterSense Technical Evaluation – Behind the Scenes

In February 2021, the U.S. EPA recognized Home Innovation Research Labs as a Home Certifying Organization (HCO) for the WaterSense Labeled Homes Program.

In this role, Home Innovation will administer verification and certification for the WaterSense program. Homes earning the WaterSense label must meet the water efficiency requirements using Home Innovation’s WaterSense Approved Certification Method (WACM), which is based on selected practices of the 2020 NGBS. Any home or building that has earned the WaterSense label is constructed at least 30% more efficient than standard construction.

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December 5, 2022

Quick QAP Recap: Winter 2022

Home Innovation actively advocates for third-party certified, green, affordable housing by providing input for state Qualified Allocation Plan (QAPs). QAPs specify a state agency’s allocation of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Most QAPs include criteria for energy efficiency and green building, and nearly 30 states specify green building certification as a requirement or point-based incentive. When third-party green certification is included within a QAP, NGBS Green Certification is typically recognized alongside other credible national green building programs. NGBS Green certification is affordable to implement, making it ideally suited for affordable housing.

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November 29, 2022

Federal Tax Incentives for Energy Efficient New Construction and Upgrades

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 is the most comprehensive and far-reaching federal investment to combat climate change to date, and the incentives for homes and multifamily buildings contained in the legislation can help transform the way we design, build, and renovate our homes and apartments for many years to come.

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Green Building, Building Practices, Energy Performance, Marketing, Homebuyer Preferences, Building Codes

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November 28, 2022

Understanding the Threat of Radon

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, so we are spot lighting a leading cause of lung cancer that should be considered and tested during construction. In addition to energy and water efficiency and other green practices, NGBS Green certified homes have protections against radon intrusion so a home buyer can have peace of mind.

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November 21, 2022

NGBS Green Certification Accepted by Local Jurisdictions – Examples from Chicago (IL), Delray Beach (FL), and Portland (OR)

The NGBS is a credible, consensus-based standard designed to set a meaningful definition of sustainable construction for all residential buildings in all locations across the U.S.

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November 14, 2022

State Housing Agencies: Recognize Green Building Programs as Resilient Construction Guides

When incorporating resilient construction requirements into funding evaluations, financing agencies need to look no further than the green building certification programs that they may already require or incentivize for building efficiency and indoor environmental quality.

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November 9, 2022

The Gladstone Earns Recognitions for Wellness and Inclusive Living

The Gladstone is an “Age in Place” home for healthy and inclusive living, incorporating a variety of universal design features that promote accessibility for homeowners and visitors.

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November 2, 2022

Deep Dive into NGBS Chapter 6: Resource Efficiency

Resource efficiency is the technique of minimizing resource exploitation and ensuring that structures can function for an extended period and withstand natural disasters. This is achieved through measures including reduction of primary and non-renewable materials, creation of high-quality products with minimal waste and retention of durable products, and durable construction practices. Various design techniques, construction practices, and choice of materials can help optimize resources used in construction.

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October 28, 2022

Streamlining Green Verification for Factory Construction

Due to the level of quality control and manufacturing precision available with factory-built construction, modular and panelized homes may have an advantage in achieving above-code green building certifications, like NGBS Green.

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October 21, 2022

Accessibility and Universal Design

The benefits of an accessible home extend far beyond individuals with permanent mobility impairment. Accessible features can make a home more visitable, for infants, young children, older adults, or even to accommodate transitory immobility from injuries. The goal of green certification programs like NGBS Green is to minimize the home’s environmental footprint and improve the home’s sustainability, which includes allowing people to remain in their home even when facing mobility limitations.

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October 19, 2022

Verifier Voice: Green Verification for Modular Multifamily Buildings

Modular construction is an increasingly popular option for delivering high-quality multifamily apartments due to the quality assurance, safety, and sustainability benefits available from building in a controlled factory setting. While modular construction offers substantial quality benefits that can help a project achieve third-party green certification, there are unique verification considerations due to the rapid production schedule and coordination across factory and site installation teams. Hear from NGBS Green Verifiers for their advice on getting started with modular green verification.

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October 10, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Is Your Product Cable to Withstand Corrosion?

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a steel cable.

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September 26, 2022

NGBS and the Artificial Turf Debate

Growing up, playing on artificial turf (AT) was a luxury and a way to prolong sport seasons during the time when natural turf fields were rendered unplayable due to weather conditions. Living in Alaska, it was common to see athletic fields with pools of water, snow, and bare patches late into May. Playing football under said conditions was an unpleasant experience to say the least. When playing for competitive teams, AT was the primary field type to reduce injury and provide athletes with the ability to run, make breaks, and tackle as if they were playing on a well-groomed grass field. No more rolling ankles on uneven patches, no more scrapes and bruises from landing on snow/ice, and no more one-dimensional playbooks on offense because wide receivers were unable to make breaks to create separation from defensive backs.

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September 21, 2022

Resiliency and Sustainability

Apart from providing shelter and a place of belonging, a house is also one of the biggest financial investments for many people. Homeowners pour the bulk of their savings into buying a house and then spend half their lives paying expensive mortgages. Imagine all this hard-earned investment wiped out in a single hurricane or torn apart by an earthquake! While there are many unavoidable natural disasters every year, damage to homes could be mitigated by additions/alterations to construction practices—some as simple and low budget as adding hurricane and metal straps to connect the roof and wall members. Sadly, many houses get destroyed each year during disaster events due to lack of resilient construction practices.

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September 14, 2022

Quick QAP Recap: Fall 2022

Home Innovation actively advocates for third-party certified, green, affordable housing by providing input for state Qualified Allocation Plan (QAPs). QAPs specify a state agency’s allocation of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Most QAPs include criteria for energy efficiency and green building, and nearly 30 states specify green building certification as a requirement or point-based incentive. When third-party green certification is included within a QAP, NGBS Green Certification is typically recognized alongside other credible national green building programs. NGBS Green certification is affordable to implement, making it ideally suited for affordable housing.

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September 12, 2022

Why is it Important that WRI is Included within an I-Code?

What is the Water Rating Index (WRI)?

The 2020 National Green Building Standard ICC-700 includes a performance path for residential builders and developers to demonstrate water efficiency. The Water Rating Index (WRI), included as an appendix within the standard, is a methodology by which a 0 to 100 score is assessed for a property’s total indoor and outdoor water use, compared to baseline conditions.

The WRI offers an important new metric that they can use to communicate expected water use to potential buyers. Like HERS and ERI for energy performance, WRI facilitates straightforward comparison across similar properties.

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September 8, 2022

Change in the Air: How Builders Plan to Navigate the Future

It’s very rewarding being a construction marketing researcher. I truly enjoy tracking, measuring, and predicting changes within the construction industry. But what I enjoy even more is helping our clients continue to reshape their businesses and product offerings to ensure they are providing the greatest value to their customers. This work requires regular interaction with builders and remodelers, keeping our “finger on the pulse” of the industry through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and jobsite observation. We listen and learn about their purchasing behaviors, problems at the office and jobsite, and the solutions they need or opportunities they are seeing.

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September 2, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Your Reputation Hinges on Your Product's Reliability

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a steel door hinge.

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August 29, 2022

Smart Home Tech for All: New Builder Study Reveals Pervasiveness of Home Electronics

In December 2021, Home Innovation polled builders about changes to their business practices due to the pandemic – asking what they viewed as temporary, and what they considered a permanent part of their home building business going forward. While issues surrounding labor and materials took the forefront, and there was a notable boost in practices related to the outdoor living boom, there was another change reported that was a bit more unexpected – a wider embrace of “smart” home technologies. In their explanations, many builders said they had been caught off-guard by the expansion of home tech and were scrambling to keep up with the expectations of a new wave of tech-savvy buyers. I gave an overview of these study findings in my presentation to the Leading Suppliers Council at the 2022 International Builders’ Show.

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August 9, 2022

Latest Insights into New Home & Replacement Markets for Windows & Doors

Earlier this summer, I was invited to deliver the closing presentation of the WDMA 2022 Annual Technical and Manufacturing Conference. I shared 10-year market trends on window and door purchases in new and remodeled U.S. homes and insights into purchasers. As I have for more than 20 years, I sourced my data from Home Innovation’s annual trusted and industry-leading Builder and Consumer Practices Reports.

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July 29, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Tools of the Trade: Add Testing to Your Product Durability Toolkit

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a screwdriver.

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July 21, 2022

Supply Chain, Labor Markets Creating Opportunities for Alternative Building Materials

Labor and supply chain issues have shaped the industry in recent years, particularly since the COVID pandemic. The net result has been longer construction cycle times, rising construction costs, and simply a much more difficult environment for building and remodeling homes. Our recent 2022 Builder Practices Survey sheds more light on how builder choices of home features, products, and materials has changed in response to these market conditions.

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July 1, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Red vs. White Rust

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a diecast metal toy truck.

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June 16, 2022

Let’s Go to The Tape: Market Opportunities Presentation

Earlier this spring, I was asked to be a guest speaker at the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council’s Tape Week conference in Buena Vista, Fla. I provided the audience with an in-depth review of six key market opportunities for pressure-sensitive tapes and adhesives in residential construction, referencing our most recent Builder and Consumer Practices data trends and key drivers and market volumes for the six product categories. Below is a brief recap of the presentation takeaways:

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June 3, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Appropriate Material Selection

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a "durable" thermal coffee mug.

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May 20, 2022

Market Reflections: Home Kitchen Remodeling in 2021

Home Innovation recently published our 2022 Consumer Practices Reports, based on the latest survey of households on home improvements and repairs in 2021. Kitchen remodeling is still hot – maybe even a bit “overheated” – and changes in material choice trends have been very fast-paced. Quartz continues to gain at the expense of the once-dominant Granite for Countertops; both came in at nearly equal shares (around 25%) of kitchen remodels. Marble also gained, but Laminate and Acrylic Solid Surface continued to lose their luster in the eyes of homeowners.  Kitchen Cabinet trends continue as they have been — painted cabinets with flat-panel-in-frame designs are the most popular in home kitchen remodels at 28% of all cabinets installed; finally surpassing the former #1 position holder, cabinets with raised panel doors and wood finish.

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May 13, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Digging into Types of Corrosion

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a heavy duty carbon steel garden hand shovel.

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May 12, 2022

2022 Consumer Practices Reports Available

The results of Home Innovation’s 2022 Consumer Practices Survey (CPS) on home remodeling are in and analyzed! The top overall finding is that U.S. and Canadian home remodeling purchases are still very strong, two years into the pandemic. The DIY purchaser segment is back to near-historical levels after a spike in 2020, and the outdoor living category is still blazing hot.

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May 6, 2022

Why is it Important the NGBS is Part of the I-Codes?

The National Green Building Standard (NGBS) ICC-700 was developed as a collaboration between ICC and NAHB to create a rating system for homes and multifamily buildings that would be used as voluntary, above-code program. Two aspects of the NGBS were innovative and helped propel NGBS Green to become the most widely used green standard for residentially-used buildings in the United States. First, the NGBS is written in code language, so that everyone on a project team -- architects, specifiers, general contractors, MEP engineers, subs, insulation crews, HVAC installers – can understand it because they all know and understand the building code. Second, the NGBS is designed for a specific type of building occupancy, not type of construction -- it's designed for the buildings where we live. Many experts scoffed at this idea when the NGBS was being developed, but it has come to serve the specific needs of multifamily builders, which differ vastly from commercial builders and developers, much more comprehensively than any green building program that came before it. Find out more about how the NGBS both aligns with and adds value to the building codes.

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April 22, 2022

Earth Day Reflections: Looking Back on 2021

Today, on Earth Day 2022, everyone is taking rightful stock of the world around them and the impact they have on it. For NGBS Green, that’s not just something we do one day a year – it’s our full-time mission and purpose. But, we figured today was a great opportunity to take a look back at all the NGBS Green certification program did in 2021 to help move the needle further toward creating a better, more sustainable, healthier, and more fulfilling built environment for the places where we all live, both behind the scenes and in the spotlight.

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April 5, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Key Causes For Corrosion

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our latest experiment with a standard house key.

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April 4, 2022

Current Market Trends & New Opps Revealed for Plastics In New Construction and Remodeling

On March 1st, I was pleased to speak at the opening session of AMI’s 2022 PVC Formulation Conference in Cleveland. I provided an overview of product trends in new homes and remodeling from 2011 to 2020, tracking market shares of PVC and other plastics products. I concluded with a discussion of how the past two tumultuous years are now resulting in opportunities for plastics. I covered the product categories where PVC is already a big player in the market, and those where they could become one, including flooring, piping, siding, decking, fences, and others. 

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March 30, 2022

The SEC Ups the Ante: Greenwashing Riskier Than Ever

New SEC rules will require public companies to report on the climate impacts of their business. The SEC proposal requires companies to disclose climate-related risks – such as how climate might impact their business, operations, or financial condition – in their statements and corporate reports. Companies will also be required to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, per the new rules. For our NGBS Green certification clients, the proposed SEC rule provides additional validation of your decision to design, build, and own high-performing real property assets, and seek a third-party certification of their conformance to back-up your environmental claims. The SEC rule aligns closely with the value of third-party certification. The NGBS Green mark signifies to investors, consumers, government staff, and other stakeholders that a building’s environmental claims are independently verified.

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March 24, 2022

Housing Innovation: It’s What We’re All About

In late February, I participated in an interview/discussion during the Building Products Strategy Summit held by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. The subject was innovation in the U.S. housing construction market. When I joined Home Innovation Research Labs nearly 30 years ago, my initial assignment was to support the Advanced Housing Technology Program (AHTP) – a deep exploration of barriers to innovation in home construction, to evaluate and catalog more than a thousand beneficial new home technologies. The AHTP program was initiated to answer concerns that innovation in housing lags other industries. The insights uncovered through that program, along with other diffusion-of-innovation research I’ve been involved in, serves as the foundation for Home Innovation’s current marketing research practice.

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March 14, 2022

COVID Changes - Temp or Perm? Part 2

In taking another look at our recent survey of builders regarding the permanence of 22 business and new home changes adopted during the pandemic, we found that most practices – aside from the strictly virus-spread-mitigating ones – will be retained by more than half of builders who responded to the survey. These include practices such as utilizing a greatly-expanded network of building product suppliers, and putting more emphasis on outdoor living space, healthier indoor air quality, and home layout changes that provide space for remote work and schooling. See where there were differences in what will stay and what will go based on size of builder, as well as local vs. regional vs. national differences.

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March 4, 2022

#WillItCorrode: Stick A Fork in It

This year, the Home Innovation lab team is on a mission to test some everyday gadgets in our salt spray chamber to find out #willitcorrode. Home Innovation's full range of corrosion testing helps building product manufacturers ensure the performance of metals and coatings. Typically, we test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, support systems for curtain walls, etc. But we have decided to mix it up a little with this experiment to emphasize the practical nature of this type of testing. Check out the results of our first month's experiment with an 18-0 stainless steel fork.

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February 16, 2022

Got The Stuff to be an NGBS Green PRO? PROve it!

Building professionals who want to learn more about a green building certification for homes, apartments, and mixed-use buildings that is affordable, credible, and provides tangible value, or just want to promote their existing NGBS Green expertise, now have a new way to do it. Home Innovation Research Labs' new training and professional designation, NGBS Green PRO, explains how the National Green Building Standard ICC-700 (NGBS) can help you build or remodel green, high-performing buildings and tout your knowledge to prospective clients. The program consists of four training modules, all AIA and ICC approved so you can earn continuing education credits. After completing all the modules and passing the tests you can earn the NGBS Green PRO professional designation.

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January 25, 2022

Quick QAP Recap: Fall-Winter 2021

Home Innovation actively advocates for third-party certified, green, affordable housing by providing input for state Qualified Allocation Plan (QAPs). QAPs specify a state agency’s allocation of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Most QAPs include criteria for energy efficiency and green building, and nearly 30 states specify green building certification as a requirement or point-based incentive. When third-party green certification is included within a QAP, NGBS Green Certification is typically recognized alongside other credible national green building programs. NGBS Green certification is affordable to implement, making it ideally suited for affordable housing.

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Building Codes, Building Practices, Energy Performance, Green Building, Marketing, Affordable Homes