Some Home Improvements Pay Off; Others, Not So Much

Even if you’re not planning to sell your home any time soon, when you consider remodeling, you face this inevitable question: How much will this improvement add to the value of my home? Surprisingly, much of the time the answer is not as much value as it costs to make the improvement. But some home renovations bring you more bang for your buck than others. The top-ranking home improvement? A new front door, which on average adds 96.6% of the amount you spent to the value to your home, according to Remodeling magazine’s annual Cost vs. Value Report for 2014. But “it has to be the right front door,” says Steven Aaron, owner of the Steve Aaron Realtor Group at Keller Williams Beverly Hills and one of the protagonists of the HGTV series Selling LA. Keep in mind that sometimes painting the existing front door provides the same payoff. All 35 projects included in the Cost vs. Value report added more value this year than last year, and this is the second consecutive year of increases after several years of decline. For the full story on this topic, visit our sister site, Living on the Cheap.