Homeowners often consider various remodeling and replacement projects as a way to add value to their homes. Some projects add more value and better recoup their costs than others, according to REALTORS® who rated small and exterior projects as the most valuable home improvement projects in the 2015 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report. Compiled annually in collaboration with Hanley Wood’s Remodeling Magazine, the report compares changes in home improvement project costs with REALTORS®’ perceptions of what those projects contribute to a home’s price at resale.
Just as they did last year, REALTORS® identified a steel entry door replacement as the project expected to return the most money, with an estimated 101.8 percent of costs recouped upon resale (compared to an estimated 96.6 percent recoup last year). The steel entry door replacement is consistently the least expensive project in the annual Cost vs. Value Report, costing little more than $1,200 on average and was the only project on this year’s list to recoup more than 100 percent of its cost at resale on a national level.
REALTORS® also identified several other projects that would make the biggest financial payoff upon resale, most on the exterior of the home. Rounding out the top 10 projects in terms of cost recouped include a manufactured stone veneer (newly included in this year’s report) at 92.2 percent, a garage door replacement—midrange project (88.5 percent), a siding replacement with fiber cement (84.3 percent), a garage door replacement—upscale project (82.5 percent), vinyl siding replacement (80.7 percent), a wood deck addition (80.5 percent), a minor kitchen remodel (79.3 percent), wood window replacement (78.8 percent), and foam-backed vinyl siding replacement (77.6 percent).
As in previous years, the Pacific region experienced the best overall cost-value ratio of 74 percent. The region, which encompasses California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii, typically sees higher cost-value ratios on account of higher resale values. That region also holds the only market—San Francisco—that experienced a combined cost-value ratio of over 100 percent for all 36 projects.
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