Before LuAnn and Lew D. Derrickson moved into their 20,000-square-foot Indianapolis home in 1998, they spent 3½ years renovating, taking the European-style house down to its studs. Among the couple’s many considerations was where to place the bathrooms—13 in total, including five half-baths—to offer convenience for family members and guests, as well as facilities for staff. “It wasn’t the number of bathrooms, it was how we were going to live in the house,” says Mr. Derrickson, the CEO of an automobile-software company. The couple, who occasionally host fundraisers for several hundred guests, are selling the home for $8.5 million. Not surprisingly, an extra bathroom adds value to a home. But an extra half-bath—a bath minus shower or tub—can boost the price almost as much, or more, data show.
The median price for single-family homes with one bathroom was $85 a square foot, according to a survey of listings on realtor.com in late July. With an extra full bathroom, the price climbed 15%, to $107 a square foot, while an extra half-bathroom added 10%, or $93 a square foot. Among homes with more than five bathrooms, however, the added value for half-baths rose higher compared with full baths. For example, the median listing price for homes with 6.5 bathrooms was $289 a square foot, or 10% more than homes with seven bathrooms, the data show. (News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, also owns Move Inc., which operates a website and mobile products for the National Association of Realtors.) “You get to the point of diminishing returns with the full bath,” says Stephen Melman, director of economic services for the National Association of Home Builders, a trade group based in Washington, D.C. A half-bath on the first floor might get more use than any other commode, he says. Plus, in luxury homes, extra half-baths are often attached to upscale features—poolhouses, catering kitchens, staff areas, home theaters and so on—that drive up prices. In Bel Air, a nine-bedroom, 17-bathroom home is on the market for $39 million. The eight half-baths—including one each off the bar, wine cellar and tennis court—are strategically placed so that residents don’t have to travel far when nature calls, says listing agent Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland. Without a powder room (or three), a large house may feel like it is missing something—especially with full baths off the bedrooms, says Joan Eleazer of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty. She is listing a roughly 40,000-square-foot home outside Dallas for $17.5 million. It comes with six full baths; its eight half-baths include three sets of his-and-hers powder rooms. This article was originally published on The Wall Street Journal.