With the current Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC) and the ecoEnergy grants available, home renovation appears to be alive and well.  It certainly is in our house.

Have you ever wondered what the pay back might be for the money you invest in those renovations? 

The Appraisal Institute of Canada has a handy calculator on their website to assist people in estimating this pay back range on 20 of the most popular home renovation projects.  While it is a guideline only and does not reflect differences in various real estate markets, it will give most people a good sense of what is really worthwhile doing in terms of investment.  You can visit the website here.

I would have to add that renovations have a pay back in more subtle ways as well that are harder to quantify.  Some renovations may not easily have a dollar figure attached however, they will impact the salability of the house.  For example, putting in new carpet is said to have a return value of 50-75% of the original cost.  If however you’ve put in a bold colour that only you and three other people might love, that could drop considerably.  On the other hand, replacing that purple carpet with hardwood flooring might yield a return of greater than 100% and affect how quickly the house will sell.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 9:15 am and is filed under Home Maintenance, Money Matters, Renovating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.