Real estate is all about location, location, location, but it may be a little bit about the color, too.
A new analysis of home listings by Zillow finds that houses with a powder blue or periwinkle bathroom sold for $5,400 more than similar homes whose bathrooms had white walls.
Blue hues throughout the home were a good bet. Other room and color combinations that significantly increased sale prices were light cerulean to cadet blue bedrooms ($1,856) and light blue to soft gray-blue kitchens ($1,809). Blue walls compliment the current trend toward white cabinets or countertops.
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It costs an average of $1,750 to paint a room, according to HomeAdvisor, which means that the return on investment for the task is well above the 64 percent average for home improvement project, according to the 2017 Cost vs. Value report from Remodeling magazine. You can also do it yourself for not much more than the cost of the paint if you’re reasonably handy.
Still, interior-decorating color schemes shift rapidly, so unless you’re planning to move out this year, paint the walls a color that you like rather than the one you think will add value. Last year, yellow kitchens added to a home’s value, according to Zillow, while this year they pulled it down.
“From fashion to home trends, styles and consumer preferences can change quickly, especially for things that are fairly reversible and changeable like paint colors,” says Kerrie Kelly, Zillow home design expert and founder of Kerrie Design Lab. “More expensive or permanent renovations projects like flooring or countertop materials can be slower to change.”
