Energy Efficiency and its Relationship to Household Income in Multifamily Rental Housing

This paper examines the energy efficiency of multifamily rentals in comparison to other housing types and its relationship to household income. It analyzes 2005 and just‐released 2009 data from the U.S. Residential Energy Consumption Survey and finds that multifamily rentals were significantly less energy efficient than other types of housing, both nationwide and in every region of the country. Nationwide, in 2009, multifamily rentals averaged 34% fewer energy efficiency features than the number found in other types of housing (7.4 vs. 11.2). Multifamily rentals added efficiency features between 2005 and 2009, but the efficiency gap between them and other housing types shrank only slightly. In addition, lower income multifamily renters lived in less energy efficient units than higher income multifamily renters in 2005 and they fell even further behind from 2005 to 2009.