How Much Value Does a Pool Add?
One of the Most Desirable Additions
You will discover very few real estate professionals that will argue a swimming pool is not a desirable feature to any home.
As one could imagine, a swimming pool is one of the most valuable additions to any home, especially in those climates that are conducive to having fun in the sun year round. But most pools don’t add a significant amount to the sales price, it’s more of a feature that homebuyers simply desire – they don’t pay a huge premium for it in the grand scheme of things.
Different Types of Pools
Now there are different types of pools. There’s:
- In-ground (vinyl, fiberglass, and concrete).
- Above-ground (vinyl)
For the purposes of this video, concrete in-ground pools are considered to be the most valuable. Above-ground pools are in the same kind of group as manufactured homes. There’s value there, but not nearly as much. In fact, it’s rare for an above-ground pool to add more than $10,000 to a home’s value.
In-ground Pools Add Value
So exactly how much value does an in-ground swimming pool add to a house? An average pool in the U.S. adds approximately 7-8% to a home’s value. So if a home is valued at $500,000, a pool would add about $40,000, making the home’s value overall to be $540,000.
Cost of New Pool Construction
So what does a swimming pool usually cost? One could easily spend $35,000 all the way up to $100,000 or more on a concrete in-ground pool depending on how large or elaborate it is. The average cost of a pool is between $40,000-$60,000. So for some markets, the cost of constructing a new pool is often equivalent to the value that’s added to the house.
Determining an Existing Pool’s Value
So how do you determine the value of a preexisting pool? The only way to accurately assess a pool’s value is to compare similar homes that don’t have pools to ones that do. By performing a comparative market analysis and calculating the difference in cost per square foot, you’ll get a pretty good idea of how much value a pool could add.
