Slide 25 of 30
- The percent of new homes built with gas heat increased at an average annual rate of 0.9 percent during the past 25 years.
- A sharp drop in newly built gas-heated homes occurred following the oil embargo-from a pre-embargo level of 54 percent to a 1978 level of 37 percent.
- Concerns about the dependable availability of natural gas in the 1970's led to restrictions on the use of natural gas in new homes. Restrictions were in place in the northern region of the country until the late 1980's.
- Increases in nominal natural gas prices accelerated after the embargo, reaching a plateau in 1983. Although the natural gas prices (in nominal terms) remained fairly constant after 1983, in real terms they declined.
- New gas hookups increased with the 1985 decontrol of wellhead prices and the expansion of natural gas imports.
- Currently, two-thirds of new homes are built with natural gas heat.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Characteristics of New Housing: 1995, (Washington, DC, October 1996).
