Renovation ROI Calculator

Every home improvement claim you'll read online — "kitchens return X% at resale," "never over-improve for your neighborhood" — boils down to one comparison: how much of what you spend actually shows up as extra value when you sell, versus how much is simply gone. This calculator makes that comparison explicit. Pick a project type, enter a budget, and it shows the estimated resale value added, the net cost you don't get back even after selling, and the resulting return as a percentage — almost always negative, because very few renovations return more in resale value than they cost, which is normal and expected, not a sign you did something wrong.

The recoup percentage for each project type is a pre-filled, editable starting point, not a locked-in fact. It's deliberately built this way because no calculator — this one included — can know your specific market, your home's condition, or what buyers in your area actually respond to. What it can do is give you a reasonable, adjustable baseline to reason from: type in your own number if you've done more specific local research, or use the default to get a rough sense of where a project sits relative to others before you commit to it. The reference table below the calculator lets you compare typical recoup rates across every project type at a glance, and clicking any row loads it straight into the calculator above.

Your budget, home value, and any custom recoup percentage you enter are remembered locally in your browser between visits, purely for convenience — none of it is sent anywhere or stored on a server. This is a planning tool for comparing options, not an appraisal; for a decision that actually matters financially, pair it with a real local agent's read on your specific market.