The recent surge in interest rates on mortgages has cooled the residential real estate market. Yet, the market has not plummeted. The median price for homes still remains high at around $379,000.
With the cooling effect in play, though, potential homeowners must weigh their home investment with a bit more care. Simply owning a home isn’t a solid guarantee of future profitability when you want to sell.
Fortunately, you can look for options that will improve the saleability of your home down the road. If you’re house shopping, keep reading for why you should invest in a home with a pool.
Property Value
While a swimming pool may or may not improve the on-paper value of your home, depending on your location, it can certainly improve the perceived value of your home.
It’s a kind of curb appeal improvement. People see swimming pools as a sort of status symbol.
Beyond that, though, it also serves as a psychological lure for people. They imagine themselves hosting pool parties for their friends. Or, they imagine themselves using the pool for fitness or recreation with their family.
While the reality may never live up to that fantasy, the fantasy itself can prove a potent emotional trigger that increases someone’s desire to buy your home.
That desire, in turn, can make them willing to bid and spend more to buy your home.
In other cases, there are people who specifically search for houses with pools for sale. For those buyers, the pool is a specific draw because they know they’ll use it on a regular basis.
Physical Fitness
For the fitness-conscious home buyer, a home with a pool really is a good investment. Swimming is one of the best aerobic exercises out there.
For one thing, it’s a whole-body activity. You must use every muscle group in most kinds of swimming. That makes it a rarity among all the available kinds of exercise.
It’s also a low-impact exercise. While you do get resistance from the water, it puts a very limited amount of pressure on your joints.
That is a distinct advantage for those who want to remain active but may find themselves coming up with a bit of arthritis.
Swimming is also good for building up endurance and muscle strength without excessive jogging or weight training. For people who do those kinds of workouts, swimming can help them maintain their endurance and strength while still getting a break.
Convenience
How many people get a gym membership but never go, even when the gym is a short drive away? The answer is a lot. Of all gym memberships, around 67 percent never get used at all.
There are many reasons why those memberships go unused. For some, the membership was an impulse purchase based on things like a New Year’s resolution. Other people overestimate their free time.
For a lot of people, though, the hurdle is psychological. They get home from work, and the idea of going back out just to exercise is a tough sell.
If all you have to do is go out your back door, though, that hurdle becomes much smaller. It’s much easier to talk yourself into taking a quick swim than it is to talk yourself into driving to your gym.
Fun
It’s a sad truth about adulthood that many adults have an unfortunately small amount of fun. There are constant worries and pressures.
After all, there are bills to pay. There are job concerns. Maybe your kid’s grades slipped enough this year to make you worry.
The pressures mount up.
Hopping in the pool for a swim has no relationship with any of those things. It’s just fun.
It’s an opportunity for you and your family to let go of all those outside pressures and enjoy a simple pleasure for a little while.
Escape the Heat
Summer temperatures have soared in recent years as extreme weather events become more common. That can leave you with very few options for cooling off short of cranking up the air conditioning.
Of course, air conditioning isn’t cheap if you have to keep it running full-blast 24/7. Those electricity bills can get pretty unforgiving in July.
While you do need a comfortable home, a pool can offer you another option for cooling off on those hot summer days. Just jumping into the pool for a few minutes and then getting out can be enough.
The water evaporating off of your skin can leave you feeling cool and refreshed.
The View
It’s true that a swimming pool can boost the curb appeal of your home a little bit, but that isn’t just true for potential home buyers. A pool can also improve the overall look of your home for you.
Glancing out at your backyard and seeing that crystal clear water can provide you with a nice view too. The color blue, the most common color for pools, is psychologically soothing for most people.
The site of water is also a psychological balm for many people as well. If you fall into that category, a pool in the backyard can serve as an ongoing source of mental health reinforcement for you.
Plus, it’s a mental health bonus right at your own home.
Investing in a Home with a Pool
Investing in a home with a pool is an investment in more than just your home’s value. Although, you can also see a boost in property value from having a pool on site.
A pool is also a great way to support fitness. Swimming is a low-impact, cardiovascular exercise. A pool offers a more convenient option than going to a gym.
Swimming is an excellent way for you to relax with your family and escape daily worries with a bit of low-key fun.
Looking for more real estate insights? Check out our House & Real Estate section for more posts.