Does a Bathroom Remodel Increase Your Home’s Resale Value?
Imagine this: you can finally afford your dream car, but you’re a little worried about resale value. Then you do some research and discover that if you keep your car in good condition, you can potentially resell it for more.
Is it a slam dunk? Of course. Not only can you afford it, but the resale value shifts the arithmetic in a positive direction.
Ditto for home remodeling. If you always envisioned a dream bathroom for your home, for example, you may not know that the national average cost for a bathroom remodel is $16,393 while returning $11,581, according to data from Zillow.
Of course, universal numbers are no guarantee of investment results. So let’s dive deeper into what those numbers mean—and how you can maximize the value of your own bathroom remodel. Because if you do it right, you can potentially have a great bathroom—and a more valuable home when it comes time to sell.
Digging Into the Numbers: How Does a Bathroom Remodel Impact Home Resale Value?
The easy answer? It depends. Zillow looked at Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value report and found that costs and returns for home improvements generally fluctuated depending on the type of home and its location. For example, a standard bathroom remodel—also categorized as either midrange or upscale—had an ROI of 70.1% on average for midrange and 56% for upscale bathrooms.
That makes sense. Upscale bathrooms may not be in a state of disrepair, so updating them might have a smaller impact on resale value. On the other hand, if your bathroom is in dire need of updating, a complete overhaul of the bathroom can represent some of the biggest swings in resale value.
What about bathroom additions? The magazine’s data found that midrange bathroom additions averaged 59.9% ROI, while upscale bathroom additions returned 54% ROI. In other words, additions didn’t tend to do quite as well as the remodels on average. However, they’re still a boost to the bottom-line resale value of your home.
With that in mind, let’s sum up what we know so far:
Your results will depend on factors like location and original home value. If your home is already “upscale,” for example, the renovations tend to have a less dramatic impact on your bottom line. The data on resale value also varied wildly across different real estate sectors, home styles, and regions.
Midrange updates perform better than upscale updates. If your home is already “upscale,” then there is a sense of diminishing returns in the data. That can be good news. You may not feel that your renovation dollar matters if you’re simply renovating a mid-market home—but the opposite is often true. These homes may see the most dramatic price swings thanks to your work.
Remodels tend to perform better than bathroom additions. Additions can still boost home resale value, but remodeling an outdated bathroom is more likely to get you the returns you’re seeking if you’re looking at the bottom-line results. Of course, if an addition is all you can do to improve your bathroom, the numbers aren’t very far below—it can still be well worth your time, money, and energy to add to your bathroom.
Where Do Home Buyers Tend to Value Bathroom Remodels the Most?
You know the old saying: location, location, location. It’s the top variable in real estate, and it’s not any different when you’re considering remodeling your bathroom. The data also showed that ROI based on bathroom remodels could be much higher.
And if you’re in California? There’s good news here. The Pacific region—from California and Washington to Hawaii and Alaska—offered the highest average ROI in the country according to Remodeling Magazine’s cost vs. value report. Their numbers say much higher returns, more like 87%, than the averages quoted above.
In the meantime, the lowest returns tended to be from the upper Midwest, including Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, as well as the Middle Atlantic region including Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The good news is that even if you were in one of these other regions, your bathroom remodels could still recoup much of your bathroom remodeling’s original price.
Are There Other Ways to Boost Your Home’s Resale Value with a Bathroom Remodel?
Yep. The report also found that if you make a bathroom more wheelchair accessible, you can recoup a tremendous amount of money from your initial investment. Here are some variables you can think about if you’re doing that:
Widening the doorway for easier entry
Adding af old-down shower seat
Using a walk-in shower that’s flush with the floor
Adding push-button locks
More accessible storage
Adding support bars throughout the bathroom
Some of these are big updates, and some are small updates that are easy to afford. Of course, you can make it all part of the same remodeling efforts, which can give your house a major boost for its overall value when it comes time to list it. And in the meantime, you get to enjoy a better bathroom—one that fits more neatly into your vision of what it’s like to live in comfort, joy, and with all the amenities you deserve.