Looking to remodel? What projects pay?
Lots of home owners in Gig Harbor have decided to remodel their current homes rather than try to sell. In many cases, that’s not a bad idea. But what projects actually pay? As a Gig Harbor real estate agent, I tell my clients to remember that most home improvement projects don’t add value to a home, but instead make your home more marketable. For example, re-doing your outdated kitchen won’t make your $320k home worth $340k, but it may make your $320k home that would have sold in 90 days sell in 30 days (numbers are purely hypothetical). Realtor Magazine recently posted their list of “Project Paybacks.” Here’s some of the results.
For the Seattle real estate market, a kitchen remodel on average cost $22,476 and recouped 100.5% of its value. A bathroom remodel, on the other hand, cost an average of $57,433 and recouped 84.7% of cost. I’m not a contractor, but I was shocked to see that a bathroom remodel cost more than double a kitchen remodel. Anybody who has done both or either, I’d love to hear your stories.
Here are some interesting comparisons. In our market, a back-up generator recouped 66.4% of its cost (estimated at $16,026, which seems really high to me). In New England, that same upgrade only recouped 44.7% of cost. A new wood deck in our market recoups 97.1% of its cost, whereas a composite deck only recoups 87.6%. Those are both more than 20% higher than the New England and Mid Atlantic markets. Replacing your windows with new vinyl windows will recoup 93.1% of cost, over 15% higher than the same upgrade anywhere else in the nation. It is interesting to note that the Pacific region had a higher % of value recouped in nearly every renovation category than any other region in the US. This goes right along with the Forbes study released earlier this month predicting that the Seattle real estate market is the best market in the nation to invest in based on current prices and expected recovery.
I’d be very curious to hear your remodel stories, both good and bad. If you’d like more of the numbers, or want to know more about how the numbers are calculated, give me a call.
