Is a Kitchen/Bath Remodel Worth It?

Perhaps no two rooms are more important than the kitchen and the bathroom; after all, even small changes in these key areas can result in major quality of life improvements for the homeowner. For this reason, it should come as no surprise that people spent some serious cash remodeling these spaces in 2016: $85 billion. What were the primary drivers when it came to these remodels? Do they represent good investments for the future? Keep reading to find out!

According to the 2017 Kitchen & Bath Design Trends Report by the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA), 10% of homeowners completed a kitchen and/or bathroom remodel in 2016. As you could probably guess, bathrooms were considerably cheaper to remodel than kitchens, with only 21% of remodels costing over $7,500 for a master bathroom. Compare this to kitchens, almost half of which (48%) had at least a cool $15,000 put into them, and the difference becomes clear.

Was this money well spent? It depends on your point of view. From a resale perspective, bathrooms actually offered a fairly poor return on investment at just 65% on average. Meanwhile, minor kitchen remodels offered quite a bit more bang for their buck, with an 80% return on average. 15% might not sound like a huge gap, but those two numbers are good/bad enough to rank as either one of the 5 best or 5 worst projects for investment return according to the 2017 Cost vs Value Report from Remodeling Magazine.

Of course, money isn't everything. The NKBA report listed aging-in-place and technology-enabled features as key elements of bath/kitchen remodels. With over 60% of homeowners planning to stay in their home indefintely, quality of life improvements such as these have significant value beyond the bank account.

Ulitmately, the choice about whether to remodel and how much to spend can't be made by anyone other than you, the homeowner. Hopefully, this post has given you an idea of the financial requirements of such an undertaking, as well as opened your thinking about which motivations are most important to you!

Source: Bath and Kitchen Remodels: Breaking Tradition Two Ways