The Newest Stimulus Bill created a lot of buzz with Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency, Remodeling and Renewable Energy. Homeowners Nationwide are looking to see what they may want to upgrade in their homes to take advantage of these benefits.

Probably one of the most popular ‘green’ upgrades that homeowners in Houston do every year is changing out their single pane windows with double pane for Energy Efficiency and to make the home quieter and healthier. Changing out your windows is also a great way to set your home apart from others when you go to sell. Home buyers are starting to look at Energy Efficient upgrades to help make their decisions on what home to buy. According to the Cost vs. Value reports, double pane windows have brought in over 72% return on investment for several years now in the Houston area. That means that if you sell your home within 12 months of installation, you will recuperate appx. 72% of that money.

The Tax Credit now for changing out the windows of you home is now 30% of the cost of the windows with a cap of $1500. Sounds great right!? Well, I suspect that there will be some angry homeowners when they go to file there taxes next year.

While this is a great tax credit if you take a look at what windows actually qualify, there are very few. I actually went to a big box store here in the North Houston area and not a single window in the store qualified. I also looked through their catalogs and did not find any that qualified.

After realizing exactly how strict the standards are to qualify for the Tax Credit, I went to local Window expert Bob Birner with Renewal by Andersen to help explain it. If you are a homeowner in Houston wanting to change out your windows, listen in to what Bob has to say.

Here is the podcast, also available on ITunes: