To Add Value to Your House, Add a Bathroom

In Money magazine's September issue, they note that "for the surest bet in home remodeling, build a new bathroom." They go on to list the typical increase in a home's value when various bathroom configurations are added. Their list:

• Add a half bath -- 10.5% typical increase in home value
• Add a full bath -- 20% typical increase in home value
• Add a full bath to a one-bathroom house -- 23% typical increase in home value

My thoughts on these:

1. I wonder if these facts hold true in the present home-selling environment. They are from 2005, so things may have changed a bit since then. That said, maybe adding a bathroom is a viable strategy for people looking to sell their homes.

2. There's a fine balance between enough bathroom and too many bathrooms. We've looked at houses with 4 1/2 baths (and there's only four of us) in which each child has their own private bathroom. And these aren't $500,000 houses we're talking either. These are maybe upper-middle-class places in upper-middle-class to middle-class neighborhoods.

3. Whatever happened to the days of one bathroom per home? I guess it was too inconvenient. I remember growing up what a pain it was on Sunday morning when my dad "went in" with the paper only to emerge an hour or so later. Heaven forbid you needed to use the bathroom during that time. :-)

4. We often have more than one bathroom being used at the same time (think kids taking baths/showers at the same time in different rooms.) When we have company, we have all three bathrooms going at once when we all get up and are preparing to go somewhere.

Comments

[Anitra]

I'd guess a good rule of thumb is half the number of bedrooms, rounded up. So a 3 or 4 bedroom house should have 2 bathrooms, while a larger house should have more.

When we were house shopping, we were surprised to see how many three or four bedroom houses had two or more bathrooms. The most outrageous was a 3-bedroom lakefront house which had a third bathroom in the walk-in basement - so the owner could "shower off without walking dirt into the house". Crazy!

[Beastlike]

No way, I definitely don't think those percentages are right in our current market. I doubt even in 2005... at least to the first two. I can see a significant increase to a two bath home vs. an one bath.

[Griffin]

How does the "increase in home value" compare to the cost of adding the bathroom?

I suppose the ratio will vary depending on the value of the home and the cost of the addition.

Bathrooms and kitchens have the best "payback", especially if you have a one bath home, but it's still good to do your own appraisal to see if the value created will be greater than the cost. This may be even more critical during a time when values are going down and interest rates are going up.

I think the best home improvements/additions are those you need (or want) vs. those you might do just to "add value" to your home.

[Mrs. Micah]

I grew up with 1.5 baths which worked out. I can't imagine having a family of 4 with only one bath. Well, I suppose I can since we only had one full one. Dad would lock himself in the masterbedroom/full bath (they connect) for up to 40 minutes each morning. That was really annoying if you needed a shower or to brush your teeth (though sometimes he'd hand those out).

2 full baths would have been great! 1 for dad and 1 for us girls.

I share 1 full bath with Mr. Micah and it isn't really a problem since neither of us cares about privacy.