How Much Are Bathrooms Really Worth?

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) says their in-depth analysis (based on data from the American Housing Survey (AHS)) makes it possible for builders and remodelers in suburban locations to provide their customers with a fairly precise estimate of how much bathrooms add to the value of their homes.

Looking at recently released data from last year’s AHS, the bottom-line results of the NAHB study reveal that a half-bath adds approximately 10.5% to a suburban home’s value and a full bath adds about 20%.

Balancing Bedrooms and Baths

“When the number of bathrooms is approximately equal to the number of bedrooms, an additional half bath adds about 10% to the home’s value, and converting the half bath to a full bath adds another, 9%, so one additional bath adds about 19% to the value,” Emrath said. When the home contains fewer bathrooms than bedrooms, “the percentage gains associated with an added bathroom can be somewhat larger.”

How does that compare with YOUR adjustment for bathrooms?

Using their average percent "value" gains for a half and full bath, one would expect to see adjustments to a $200,000 home in the range of $20,000 to $40,000!    That's of course as long as the numbers of baths and bedrooms stay in synch.

Is ALL of that contributory value of the bath? 

• Could it be the home has some functional obsolescence?  For example, consider a 2,400 square foot 2-story home, with four bedrooms, and only 1.5 baths!  Maybe half of the reported $40,000 gain started out as a $20,000 negative impact on an otherwise marketable home?
• As we add a bath are we also adding Gross Living Area (GLA) square footage?  That might be for the bath alone or an additional bedroom to keep things in synch. Maybe $5,000 to $10,000 could be attributed to size?

What I'm wondering is if a $20,000 to $40,000 bath room gain might actually be spread over several categories in the typical appraisal's market adjustment grid?   Functional utility, Gross Living Area, and Bath count.

I believe one has to be careful when they just say "Adding a bath will increase the value of your home by 20%!"   There may be many other factors in play.

For information that home owners can use to compare the actual cost of a bathroom addition to how much it will add to the dollar value of their home, click here. The data is broken down regionally — with California being separated from the rest of the West because its home prices are much higher — and by the square footage of the home and the number of bedrooms.

To access the NAHB House Price Estimator interactively online and experiment with various combinations of amenities to see how they change the value of a home, click here.