In 2007 the National Association of Realtors conducted a survey of home buyers which asked how important energy efficiency was to them in making their purchase. Although they don't specify I suspect the survey was conducted based upon purchases in 2006 vs. 2007.

92% of all home buyers consider energy efficiency at least somewhat important and 46% ranked it as very important when it pertains to a home purchase.

Repeat buyers are more aware and more interested in efficiency then first time buyers. 50% of repeat buyers indicate that efficiency in the home is very important where as only 41% of first time buyers consider this very important.

Buyers of new homes place more importance on energy efficiency than any other group of buyer. 65% of new home buyers consider it very important compared to just 39% of existing home buyers.

The following statistic was a bit of a surprise for me and it says that ONLY 32% of younger buyers, ages 18 - 24, indicated that energy efficiency was very important. The survey reports that the older the buyer, the more important it becomes. 63% of buyers over the age of 75 reported that energy efficiency is very important. I suspect if this same survey was done today, the stats would be very different and we would see the younger generation of buyers put more importance in efficiency than they did 3 years ago.