Looking for ways to spruce up your home and wondering what will give you the most bang for your buck at resell time? New study shows a decline in home improvement returns for homeowners in recent years.
Install new entry door. That costs an average of $1,546 and returned 131% of the investment, according to Remodeling magazine’s 2010 Remodeling Cost vs. Value survey, done in partnership with the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Like every other renovation job though, it returned a lower percentage of its costs in added home value this year than it did in 2009 nationally, and we’re seeing the same familiar trend here in Marin County. In general, anyone planning to remodel their Marin home will pay a lot more for the job than they will get back in return when they sell. The report finds only 60% of remodeling costs in 2010 would be recouped by homeowners on average. Local costs for the San Francisco area are provided in the chart below. Exterior improvements appear to perform better overall than interior ones, owing to the necessity of maintaining a home’s “curb appeal.”
The cost vs. value equation has been getting less attractive in recent years, but 2010 has seen a particular decline in the percentage of home improvement costs recouped. On the average remodeling job, homeowners recouped 16% less value than they had in 2009, the steepest slide the survey has recorded in its nine-year history.
