I see a front door and I want it painted black: With a black front door, your house could sell for $6,000 more. But if your kitchen’s dominant color is brick or barn red, that could take over $2,000 off the selling price.
They used to say, “If you want to sell her, paint her yellow.” Today, a more scientific method of judging the effect of color on a house’s salability shows otherwise: yellow houses sell for over $3,000 less.
Zillow, the online real estate database company, conducted a paint color analysis in 2018 that looked at more than 135,000 photographs of homes that sold around the country between January 2010 and May 2018 and compared how certain paint colors impacted their sale prices on average. The analysis controlled for square footage, the house’s age, the date of the transaction and location, and then compared the sale prices of homes with white walls versus those with more colorful paint.
Homes with front doors painted charcoal, smoky black or a rich jet black sell for $6,271 more than expected, the highest sales premium of all the room and color combinations analyzed. That is good news for homeowners who believe that expensive measures are needed to make their house attractive to potential buyers. In fact, a small effort can reap large rewards.
“For a seller, painting a front door is one the least expensive home prep projects, but also one that can have a powerful impact on a home’s sale price,” says Kerrie Kelly, a Zillow home design expert.
She points out that media plays a large role in the appeal of strong colors and contrasts.
“While cool, neutral wall colors like tan and light blue are still popular, we’re seeing a notable shift in home design where pops of color – particularly in darker hues of blue and gray to even black – are becoming increasingly popular. Contrasting colors, especially in kitchens and home exteriors, add interest and dimension to a room that plays very well in listing photos and videos.”
Contrasting colors that sell include “tuxedo kitchens,” where the upper and lower cabinets are painted in two different colors; these add a $1,547 premium. White cabinets contrasted by a dark navy blue or black kitchen island were some of the most common tuxedo kitchens in top-performing listings.
Also desirable are light blue bathrooms, especially periwinkle blue with a gray-blue tint, which add $2,786 to the purchase price. In the living room, light taupe proved a winner, especially a warm tan with pink or peach undertones. On accent walls, we love darker peach and pink undertones.
But a brown dining room, whether in shades of oat, sand, or brown with yellowish undertones, is a loser, taking $1,684 off the predicted purchase price.
