Color psychology probably doesn’t affect your life on a day-to-day basis — until you’re trying to sell your home, that is. The color of your walls can actually raise or lower the value of your property, a dollar amount that changes annually along with the year’s color trends. Zillow recently examined over 32,000 photos of sold homes around the country, dissecting how certain colors impact their closing price. While some of the don’ts from 2016 still stand, 2017 has ushered in brand-new swatches of profitable paint colors. Here are the dos and don’ts of paint colors in 2017, as originally reported by MarketWatch.
DO:
Keep it light. “Painting walls in fresh, natural-looking colors, particularly in shades of blue and pale gray, not only make a home feel larger but are also neutral enough to help future buyers envision themselves living in the space,” said Zillow’s chief economist, Svenja Gudell. Homes with blue bathrooms, specifically lighter shades of blue or periwinkle, brought in roughly $5,440 more than expected. Similarly, light blue-gray kitchens sold for $1,809 more, while natural hues like oatmeal and pale gray consistently overperformed.
DON’T:
While a yellow kitchen brought in $1,100 more in 2016, the sunny hue is now lowering your home’s value by an estimated $820. Similarly, walls with no color at all (read: stark white) had the most negative impact on sale prices. “Homes with white bathrooms, for instance, sold for an average of $4,035 less than similar homes,” noted Zillow. Finally, terra-cotta walls continued to slash a home’s value by $2,031 — a $1,000 increase from last year.
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