Staff Reports
Renew Financial announced Thursday that it has completed more than $100 million worth of storm-hardening and home resilience-related projects in Florida over the last three years.
Renew Financial provides financing for a variety of resilience and storm-hardening upgrades through the property assessed clean energy program, or PACE.
Unlike traditional bank loans, PACE financing allows consumers to pay back the cost of the upgrades through assessments on their property tax bill.
With the prospect of climate change and powerful storms continuing to grow, homeowners across the Sunshine State are increasingly turning to PACE to make critical safety improvements to their properties.
Renew Financial said the most popular resilience-related projects they fund include wind-resilient roofs, roof-to-wall reinforcements, and hurricane impact windows and doors.
In addition to bolstering the structure, such upgrades reduce home insurance premiums, and collectively avoid tens of millions in potential property damage.
Renew Financial originally developed PACE as a low-cost, upfront financing solution for a broad range of homeowners, particularly those who traditionally have greater difficulty accessing affordable financing.
Beyond the financial benefits PACE offers homeowners, state and local governments also use PACE as an effective public policy tool to advance critical storm safety and home resilience efforts in vulnerable geographic regions, like South Florida.
“Building home resilience and strengthening local communities on a large scale is central to Renew Financial’s mission. Each year, we see more and more Florida homeowners looking for safe and cost-effective ways to strengthen their homes, and PACE has quickly become their go-to solution,” Renew Financial CEO Kirk Inglis said.
“To help meet this rising demand for affordable financing, Renew Financial is excited to double down on our investments in Florida as we continue efforts to expand access to PACE more broadly.”
