If you’re selling your home, and planning to show it any time soon, here’s a great reason to declutter and clean out your garage. The Wall Street Journal’s Leigh Kamping-Carder reports on data compiled by economic researchers at Realtor.com to see just how much more each additional parking spot adds to a home’s asking price.
When it comes to buying a home, there’s no such thing as free parking – but what is the premium for each additional car space?
In an analysis based on median listing prices per square foot, website realtor.com looked at all single-family homes listed between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31 to find how much more home sellers ask per parking spot. (Homes with zero bays weren’t included.) While prices rise with each added space, as might be expected, the jumps are greater at a couple of surprise points.
The first sharp rise is for three-car homes, which were priced 11.45% higher than those with a single spot. Most homes have two-car garages – they made up almost 64% of listings – but three-car homes tend to be larger and higher-end, bumping up prices, says Javier Vivas, realtor.com’s economic researcher.
Similarly, homes with a seven-car capacity asked a striking 31.42% more than one-car homes, the data show. That may be because homes with four or five parking spots – a two-car garage with a wide driveway, for example – may be large but not necessarily luxury, Mr. Vivas says.
Curiously, homes with two-car garages were 2.71% less expensive than homes that fit a single car. While such a small difference is the result of the mix of listings, Mr. Vivas says, single-car homes are more likely to be smaller spaces, which fetch a premium nationally on a per-square-foot basis.
