Economy Watch: Texas LEEDs in Residential Projects
The Lone Star State has the most LEED-certified residential construction projects in the U.S., with more than half of them located in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area, according to a recent ABODO report analyzing USGBC data.
By D.C. Stribling, Contributing Editor
So far there have been more than 38,350 LEED-certifed residential projects nationwide, totaling 1.32 billion square feet, ABODO said in a recent report about green residential building, crunching data from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Among the states, Texas has the most LEED-certified residential construction projects by a wide margin: 6,945 projects, with more than half of them in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area, which also happens to have the most projects in the nation among metros, at 3,797. California has 5,255 residential LEED projects, thanks largely to Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim with 2,251. New York also ranks highly, with 2,215 projects.
In terms of LEED-certified residential square footage, however, greater Washington D.C. is No. 1, with more than 183.3 million square feet. (The national capital also has the most LEED-certified commercial square feet, at nearly 311 million square feet, much of which is due to influence of the federal government in recent years.)
LEED residential projects per capita is another story, ABODO said, with smaller metros tending to have higher numbers per capita. Leading the pack is Jacksonville, N.C., with 4.6 residential LEED projects per 1,000 people. Close behind is Santa Fe, N.M., with 3.7 projects per 1,000, followed by Fairbanks, Alaska (2 per 1,000), Edwards, Colo. (1.9 per 1,000), and Taos, N.M. (1.9 per 1,000).
