From “learning” thermostats to energy saving smartphone apps, it has never been easier to monitor and control your home’s energy use. While we all love doing our part to help the environment, the real draw here is how these simple solutions will help you save money by keeping those monthly energy bills low. Here are just some of many easy home energy-monitoring tools that can help your home run as efficiently as possible.

Smart Thermostats

With air conditioning a must in southwest Florida, many homeowners worry they won’t be able to keep their homes comfortable without their energy bills going through the roof. Luckily, innovations in smart thermostat technology can help you keep your house cool and refreshing without breaking the bank.

Nest Labs offers the Nest Learning Thermostat. This sleek, minimally designed wall thermostat can be adjusted manually in your home or wirelessly from any location through your computer or smartphone. Each time you adjust the thermostat, Nest learns about your temperature preferences and daily life. It then uses this information to help you keep your home at a consistently comfortable temperature while simultaneously saving money on energy costs. For example, it learns to automatically adjust the temperature when you’re away,  asleep at night or when the weather unexpectedly changes.

Other similar programmable thermostats include the Ecobee Smart Thermostat, the Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, and the Venstar ColorTouch Thermostat.

Smartphone Apps

Nowadays it seems like there is an app for everything, and home energy management is no exception. Among the many smartphone apps that monitor your home’s energy use is the highly rated Kill-Ur-Watts. It’s a free app that comprehensively monitors your home’s electric energy use by gathering data from your energy provider and relaying that information back to you through user-friendly, easy-to-understand graphs and charts.

Although this information has always been available to the inquisitive consumer through your energy provider, apps like Kill-Ur-Watts make it instantly accessible and easily digestible so you can actually put it to use. For example, it can help you identify what time of day it is cheapest to do your laundry or what appliances are getting neglected and should, therefore, be unplugged. These simple tips will not only improve your home’s efficiency but also cut down on your electric bill.

Similar smartphone energy management apps include PlotWatt, WattBuddy, and Bidgely.

Meter Sensors and Smart Meters

Unlike the smartphone energy monitoring apps, meter sensors and smart meters feed you information directly from your home’s existing energy meter instead of sending data from your energy provider. They monitor every aspect of your electric energy use and continuously send information back to you. This helps you learn exactly when and where your home uses the most energy so you can make informed decisions about how to better manage energy consumption and keep costs down.

Blue Line Innovation offers two different meter sensors. The PowerCost Monitor tracks the cost of running specific appliances and shows where power is being wasted, perhaps in electronics you thought were turned off overnight or while you are at work. The Blue Line Optical Sensor uses optical readers attached to your home meter to monitor your energy use comprehensively and alert you to any problems that could reduce your system’s efficiency, such as clogged air filters.

Smart meters are only available through your utility company and make your home part of the “smart grid.” The smart meters connect homes and utility companies in a two-way information stream with the goal of optimizing energy efficiency for homeowners and utility companies alike. They allow the utility to read the meter remotely so they can then offer you “smart” pricing based what time of day energy is cheapest. Homeowners can also look online or use apps to assess their home energy usage and reduce bills on their own.

These are just a few home energy management products that can help you be a little kinder to the environment, not to mention your wallets, without sacrificing comfort or convenience in the process.

Get more great tips on how to go green and save on energy costs by contacting a Certified Green Professional (CGP) from the directory at nahb.org.  The Collier Building Industry Association is affiliated with the National home Builders’ Association.

A large number of baby boomers are reaching the point where their children have grown up and moved out of the house. Though the transition from full house to empty nest can be filled with excitement, it can also be filled with stress. Among numerous questions that may come to mind, you might be wondering if this is an opportunity to move and downsize to a smaller, more manageable home. Or perhaps you want to stay in your current home and repurpose the extra space.

The answers to these questions depend on your unique circumstances. But for those who decide to stay put—at least for the time being—now is a great time to begin considering which, if any, modifications your home may require to better suit your needs as you get older.

Rather than waiting until an incident occurs, be proactive about making alterations to your home that will help you avoid potential injury. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are planning to “age in place.

Prioritize Your Wish List

With the kids out of the house and more free time on your hands, you might have the urge to dive right in and tackle many of the DIY projects on your list. But first, take another look at the rooms in your house to determine which ones fit your new lifestyle, and which ones need some work. Some areas of the home might only need minor changes. Others might need to be repurposed altogether. Take the time to create a general plan and prioritize the items on your list.

Focus on Improving Livability

Many empty nesters hire expert remodelers to adapt their home to make it easy to use and maintain. Stairs can sometimes become a problem, but moving the master bedroom and the laundry room to the ground floor can be part of a solution. Doing so can give home owners many more years in the home they love without a sense of urgency to move to a one-story home. Building professionals who have earned the National Association of Home Builders’ Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) designation have received training on how to build or renovate a home so that the occupants can live in the home safely, independently and comfortably, regardless of their age.

Expand Your Space

Depending on the age of your home, you may find that, for example, your master bedroom or bath is too small for comfort. Look for opportunities to expand those rooms into adjacent, unused or underutilized spaces. A remodeling professional is the best person to help you determine what your options are to build your dream master bathroom or bedroom. They can also help you find ways to create a more open floorplan that is easier to navigate for those with mobility concerns. Incorporating these changes will not only create a home that suits a changing lifestyle, they also may increase the value of your home when you eventually decide it’s time sell.

For more information on the most effective ways for empty nesters to remodel their home, call a remodeler today or contact the Collier Building Industy Association for a listing of local remodeler members who have certification as Aging in Place Specialists (CAPS).  A directory of CBIA members can be found at the CBIA website www.cbia.net.

Everybody needs a crystal ball. While the future is unknowable, of course, commercial and residential builders still have to make a reasonable forecast of economic conditions to plan for the year ahead.

One useful report is the Urban Land Institute’s Real Estate Consensus Forecast. The Urban Land Institute is a well-respected nonprofit education and research organization supported by its 40,000 members. The most recent semi-annual survey was conducted in September and involved 51 leading real estate economists and analysts from 37 real estate investment, advisory and research firm. The most recent results were published in October and the next forecast will appear next April. Some highlights of the current national forecast:

• Continued economic expansion over the next three years but at a somewhat slower pace than the prior two years;
• Relatively high but declining commercial real estate volumes;
• Continued commercial price appreciation, rent growth and positive returns but at more subdued and decelerating rates;
• Better-than-average vacancy and occupancy rates, except for retail;
• Continued growth in single family housing starts but remaining at levels below the long-term average.

The outlook for inflation, interest rates and capitalization rates remain subdued too. For 2017, the consensus forecast is for 1.9% inflation, 2.2% 10-year Treasury yields and capitalization rates of 5.3% for institutional-quality real estate investments. Financing is a bright spot. Issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities, a key source of financing for commercial real estate, will rebound in 2017 to $85 billion from $70 billion in 2016.

Apartments have been one of the hottest sectors with some of the strongest construction activity in recent years. But the forecast is for vacancy rates to rise in 2017 and 2018, albeit remain below the 20-year average. Apartment rental growth is expected to moderate too, though it will remain above the 20-year average growth rate of 2.8%.

Single-family housing experienced positive growth in starts for the fourth straight year in 2015. They are projected to increase to 793,500 this year and 837,000 in 2017 but still remain below the 20-year average. “The length of the current expansion may weigh on forecasters’ minds, as well as uncertainty about the upcoming presidential election and economic and political turmoil abroad,” says William Maher, director of North American strategy and research with LaSalle Investment Management, in a statement accompanying the ULI report. “U.S. real estate markets are intricately tied to the broader economy and capital markets, both of which are growing more slowly than earlier in the cycle.  It is no surprise that the real estate market is following suit.”

The forecast noted these trends in commercial real estate:

• Office: Office vacancy rates are expected to decline to 12.8% in 2016 and then plateau in 2017. The office rental growth rate is expected to moderate to 2.8% in 2016 and 2.9% in 2017.
• Retail: Retail vacancy rates are forecast to decline from 10.8% in 2016 to 10.6% in 2017. Retail rental rates are expected to grow at 2% in 2016 and 1.6% in 2017.
• Industrial/warehouse: Vacancy rates are expected to fall to 8.7% at the end of 2016 and flatten to 8.6% in 2017. Survey results forecast rental-rate growth of 4.7% in 2016 and 4% in 2017.
• Hotels: Hotel occupancy rates are predicted to reach 65.5% in 2016 before inching down to 65.2% in 2017. Revenues per available room will grow 4% this year, but fall below the long-term average to 3.1% in 2017.

You can read the full report, here.