BARBECUES, FIRE PITS ADD MORE THAN 20 PERCENT TO GOLDEN STATE HOME PRICES
Summer officially arrived late last week, and California homeowners who have tricked-out their backyards for outdoor parties not only stand to have good times ahead but also higher home prices if and when the time comes to sell.
That’s according to a new realtor.com report, which analyzed more than 150,000 U.S. home listings to gauge where outdoor summer-fun features are the most popular and how much of a premium such amenities will command. Nationwide, the 10 states with the most home listings mentioning “summer” are almost all in areas of the country with brutal winter weather, including four in New England. (California ranks No. 9 in America for listings that mention summer, though that accounts for only less than 1 percent of homes for sale in the state.)
Barbecues, on the other hand, are mentioned in 9.5 percent of home listings in California, second in the U.S. behind Arizona. Golden State homes for sale that include mentions of barbecue list at $364 per square foot, 23 percent more than the average California listing. Similarly, fire pits, which are found in 5 percent of California home listings, add 22 percent to a home’s per-square-foot price. The state also has the country’s second highest number of listings with swimming pools — 2.8 percent — which causes list prices to rise by 14 percent.
The study comes not long after survey results from Houzz found that more than half of Americans who upgrade their homes’ outdoor spaces plan to entertain guests more. Fire pits are the most popular outdoor amenity in 2018, cited by 66 percent of the landscaping professionals that Houzz polled.
