It's easy to philosophize about how good it is to go Green, both for the environment and for your investment portfolio. But let's get down to business. Let's look at some cold hard data on why Green is great, especially in a recession. (Click for an overview of owning an apartment in a Green building).

• Have you seen the Green Building Market Barometer's survey of 754 real estate executives? 3/4 of execs--from brokers to engineers--believe in Green, recession or otherwise.

From Fed to buy $300 billion in long-term Treasurys by MarketWatch...

The Federal Reserve's move, one of several actions taken Wednesday aimed at making it less expensive to borrow money, signaled it will boost the size of its balance sheet to more than $4 trillion. Today's moves double the amount of money the central bank has poured into the economy to try to stimulate economic activity.

Here's the immediate market impact...

Stocks didn't fall today. This follows yesterday's largest rally in four months. Could this be because we might be nearing solutions to FASB 157 (mark-to-market) and the Uptick rule? Talks of a fix are boosting confidence in stocks. The fix is the new media buzz... and it's almost comical to finally see Congress giving attention to the mark-to-market issue. We've always argued the rule shouldn't be abolished or suspended.

First-time home-buyers who buy between now and November could get either an $8K or 10%-of-home-value tax credit, whichever is lower. Remember: it's a dollar-for-dollar tax cut, not a liability reduction (which would only save you a paltry $1K).

So, let's math out the $8K part.

If you owe $8K in income taxes and qualify for the $8K tax credit, you owe nothing ($8K-$8K=0). I know what you're thinking, and the answer's yes... If you're liable for $3K in income tax, you'd instead get a check for $5K ($8K-$3K=$5K).

You know how so many great ideas are ahead of their time? That's kind of how Manhattan condos are. We've always known they're great investments and great places to live. But we didn't really know what we had until we started thinking Green. When some genius designed the first condo (bear with me!), he or she used smart economic principles to create homes that could share resources. Walls, heat, water. Security. Even luxury amenities. You name it. Lo and behold, we've found that the condominium's design is the perfect Green square one. Let's look at how the average condo is great for the environment... then, we'll see how modern developers are taking it a step Greener.