[adamz]

It's hard to believe it now, after this long cold dreary endless winter, but....

In three months it's going to be summer!

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by adamz

It's hard to believe it now, after this long cold dreary endless winter, but....

In three months it's going to be summer!

I have a feeling that we're going to have a short Spring and we'll head straight on into summer. Kind of disappointed, as I normally really like Spring.

[adamz]

I like spring too, but I'll take anything but winter at this point. I have the feeling that everyone I know is on the verge of severe SAD.

[mrgmrg]

Spring to me means allergies, rain, lots of wind, mud, allergies, and humidity. Did I mention allergies? That said, I'll take anything over winter at this point.

[andthentherewere3]

Originally Posted by mrgmrg

Spring to me means allergies, rain, lots of wind, mud, allergies, and humidity. Did I mention allergies? That said, I'll take anything over winter at this point.

OHHH, allergies, I just had a thought, since spring will probably turn right into summer, the allergy season will probably be worse than usual...

[Scott R]

I grew up with a vinyl-lined inground pool that was not particularly attractive (sort of an octagon oval shape). Our last house had a vinyl-lined, but very attractive, pool (sort of a kidney shape). Some thoughts:

1) Does a pool subtract value or add value? Well, for buyers who *don't* want a pool, it decreases values. For those who *want* a pool, an attractive pool adds value. For those who don't care one way or another...you guessed it - it doesn't really add or lower the value. The same could be said about any number of other features of your house? In the heart of a city? Some would love it, while others who want the quiet of a rural area wouldn't even bother looking at it.
2) In both houses I owned with pools, I don't recall the homeowner's insurance being any higher than what I paid with the houses that didn't have pools. I'm a bit surprised by that myself, but maybe that's because if your neighbor's kid drowns in your pool and they sue you, homeowner's insurance doesn't even come into the equation?
3) Opening/closing is a hassle (or, if you pay someone else to do it, pricey). Chemicals add cost. And if you want to heat it, that's probably the most costly aspect (neither of our pools were heated, but my wife was pressing me to add a heater for our last house's pool and that would have been in the cards had we not decided to move). So, yes, owning a pool costs money. If you don't particularly want a pool (or maybe care one way or the other), this could certainly be a reason to avoid a house with a pool. For those who think they would enjoy having a pool, you have to think about the added cost like you'd think about taking a vacation, or whatever other luxury expenses you might have.
4) Maintenance can be a chore, or it might not be. When we bought our last house, the owners had just put the pool in a year or two earlier, so it was a new vinyl-lined pool, and it had a connector on the side where you'd hook up a hose to a "robot" which would move around the bottom and clean the pool. This, plus the fact that there were no trees anywhere close to the pool, allowed the pool to be pretty much maintenance-free as far as keeping it clean. The biggest challenge was keeping the water in balance, but if you took a water sample to a pool place they could tell you what chemicals you needed to add to get it in balance. Once in balance, it pretty much stayed in balance for a long while (if you're not sure what I'm even talking about here, and want further explanation, just ask).
4) Someone else mentioned that for lower-cost homes a pool could make the house harder to sell, and for higher-priced homes, a pool could be attractive because the buyers have the money to not worry about the maintenance costs. That's very true, but it's also worth noting that more expensive homes are more likely to have more expensive, beautiful inground pools with fancy landscaping/decking around the pool. Maybe an integrated hot tub, too.

I'm a bit odd because I really like the idea of having a beautiful pool, but I hardly ever made use of the pools we had (not having them heated was probably a factor). When we moved to our current house we thought about adding one. For an attractive inground pool, the cost of adding one is significant. Think $40K or more. Ouch. We tabled that idea simply because we weren't sure we were even going to keep our current house for 10 years, so that was simply too high a price to justify.

[salm10]

My situation with the pool is the same as JayCT. I owned a house for 22 years with an inground pool. $200 per year in chemicals and $200 to run the pump. Four hours of work every Saturday morning for vacuuming and other general maintenance. My pool was a liner type and I had to replace it every six years at about $3500 per clip. Kids loved it, we bought the house because it had a pool and when we sold it the buyers wanted the house because of the pool. It didn't add or subtract anything from the value of the house.

I would not recommend buying a house and then installing an inground pool as it would probably cost $30K to $50K depending on your needs. The house will not go up in value correspondingly.

[Lalalally]

Originally Posted by salm10

My situation with the pool is the same as JayCT. I owned a house for 22 years with an inground pool. $200 per year in chemicals and $200 to run the pump. Four hours of work every Saturday morning for vacuuming and other general maintenance. My pool was a liner type and I had to replace it every six years at about $3500 per clip. Kids loved it, we bought the house because it had a pool and when we sold it the buyers wanted the house because of the pool. It didn't add or subtract anything from the value of the house.

I would not recommend buying a house and then installing an inground pool as it would probably cost $30K to $50K depending on your needs. The house will not go up in value correspondingly.

When we were house shopping a number of years ago, an in-ground pool was one of the things on our wish list, unfortunately though, it didn't work out, and we wound up in this house without one. We've played around with the idea of installing one, and we specifically bought this house knowing we could put one in if we really wanted to (I.e. The septic system here is under the front yard, not the back, so we could theoretically dig up the backyard to put one in). We kind of shifted gears though after discussing with friends who did just that...for $60K! Now we just go visit them on the really hot days . Still though, I wish I had one....

[mrgmrg]

Originally Posted by Scott R

1) Does a pool subtract value or add value? Well, for buyers who *don't* want a pool, it decreases values. For those who *want* a pool, an attractive pool adds value. For those who don't care one way or another...you guessed it - it doesn't really add or lower the value. The same could be said about any number of other features of your house? In the heart of a city? Some would love it, while others who want the quiet of a rural area wouldn't even bother looking at it.

Right--but you can't market your house to pool-lovers only. You're not going to get someone to offer you $20k over your asking price because you have a pool and they love pools. You price your house for the market--and in most cases, it's considered neutral to negative.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by mrgmrg

Right--but you can't market your house to pool-lovers only. You're not going to get someone to offer you $20k over your asking price because you have a pool and they love pools. You price your house for the market--and in most cases, it's considered neutral to negative.

I agree with your first two sentences, but not in your last one. I doubt it's considered "neutral to negative." I suspect it's more like "neutral to positive."

With a house in the $300-400K price range, adding a $50K pool is not going to have a very high return on investment. But adding a $50K pool to a $800K+ house? Maybe.