Remodeling - Will it Carryover to Resale Value

There are many reasons for wanting to remodel your home.  Some decisions relate to how long you plan to live in your home and your particular needs as an owner or investor.  But if you are concerned with resale value, you may want to see the Cost vs. Value Report 2013 by Remodeling Magazine (Hanley Wood, LLC).  The report is conveniently available on their website at www.costvsvalue.com.

The U.S. is broken into 9 regions shown in list form or on a color map, which when clicked on can be broken down further into metropolitan areas within the region. For example the Pacific Region includes the western coastal states of the continental U.S. and Alaska and Hawaii.  But if you click on that region you can select a report for Anchorage, Alaska, or Portland, Oregon, for example.

In order to download the Cost vs. Value Report 2013 that I wanted for Portland, Oregon, I had to fill out a free registration and short survey, but it took less than two minutes. As a property valuation specialist, I'll be able to refer to the report many times until next year's report comes out, so my return on time invested was well worth it.

By the way, the website includes reports back to 2002.  This could be a very useful resource for someone performing an appraisal where date of valuation is not the current value (say for inheritance purposes) or if you want to research trends over a period of time for certain remodeling types.  For example, you might want to know the trend in cost vs. value for basement remodeling for midrange homes in your area.

Tell me how you might use the report in the work that you do.