Homeowners often ask if remodeling will be worth it in the end, especially when they go to sell their home down the road. Will their home’s resale value increase or not? The honest answer is that kitchen and bathroom remodel resale value depends far more on the scope than on square footage, finish level, or total spend. The national data is consistent on this point, and so is what we see after 25+ years of experience across Chicago and the suburbs. A disciplined kitchen refresh routinely returns more than it costs. A six-figure custom kitchen returns roughly a third. This guide breaks down what the published numbers actually say, what they leave out, and how to plan a project that holds its value in a Chicagoland market.
What the National Numbers Say
The most widely cited source on remodeling returns is the Cost vs. Value Report, published annually by Zonda and the Journal of Light Construction. The 2025 edition, its 38th, priced 28 standardized projects against resale value across 119 U.S. markets. Here is where kitchens and baths landed nationally.
| Project | Job Cost | Resale Value | Cost Recouped |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor kitchen remodel, midrange | $28,458 | $32,141 | 112.9% |
| Bath remodel, midrange | $26,138 | $20,915 | 80.0% |
| Bath remodel, universal design | $42,183 | $25,812 | 61.2% |
| Bathroom addition, midrange | $60,645 | $32,347 | 53.3% |
| Major kitchen remodel, midrange | $82,793 | $42,130 | 50.9% |
| Bath remodel, upscale | $81,612 | $34,000 | 41.7% |
| Major kitchen remodel, upscale | $164,104 | $58,561 | 35.7% |
Read that table top to bottom and the pattern is impossible to miss. Returns fall as budgets rise. The minor kitchen remodel was the only interior project in the report’s national top five, sitting among a list otherwise dominated by exterior replacements. Every step up in scope buys more house and less recovery.
Kitchen and Bathroom Remodel Resale Value in the Chicago Region
National averages are a starting point, not a forecast for your block. The report also publishes regional figures, and Illinois sits in the East North Central region alongside Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Our numbers run a little cooler than the national set.
| Project | Job Cost | Resale Value | Cost Recouped |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor kitchen remodel, midrange | $27,005 | $27,318 | 101.2% |
| Basement remodel | $49,713 | $39,141 | 78.7% |
| Bath remodel, midrange | $24,910 | $17,662 | 70.9% |
| Bath remodel, universal design | $40,855 | $23,782 | 58.2% |
| Bathroom addition, midrange | $57,427 | $30,613 | 53.3% |
| Major kitchen remodel, midrange | $83,113 | $40,038 | 48.2% |
| Bath remodel, upscale | $78,684 | $28,654 | 36.4% |
A minor kitchen remodel still breaks even here, which is remarkable for any interior project. Midrange baths recover about 71 cents on the dollar. Upscale baths recover roughly 36 cents. If resale is your primary motive, that spread is the single most useful fact in this article.
Why a Minor Kitchen Remodel Beats a Major One
The word “minor” is doing a lot of work in that data, and it is worth defining. In the report’s methodology, a minor kitchen remodel means a dated 200-square-foot kitchen where the cabinet boxes stay put and only the door and drawer fronts get replaced, along with new hardware, a new range and refrigerator, new countertops, a midpriced sink and faucet, and new resilient flooring. Nothing moves. No walls come down. No plumbing gets rerouted.
That is the whole trick. Buyers respond to what they can see in the first ten seconds of walking into a room, and fronts, counters, hardware, and flooring are all visible. The expensive part of a major remodel, which is relocating services and reframing openings, is invisible on a listing photo. You pay for it and the appraisal does not.
None of that means a full renovation is a bad decision. It means the justification changes. If your layout genuinely does not work, if the sink faces a wall or two people cannot pass each other, the return is in daily use rather than in the sale price. Our guide to kitchen remodel cost in Chicago breaks the tiers down in detail, and our post on what really drives kitchen remodel pricing in the south suburbs covers the line items that swing budgets hardest.
Where Bathrooms Land
Bathrooms behave the same way. The midrange bath in the report is a straightforward update of an existing 5×7 room: new tub with a tile surround, new pressure-balanced shower control, new toilet, solid-surface vanity with an integral sink, a lit medicine cabinet, and a tile floor. It recouped 80 percent nationally and 70.9 percent in our region. Push that same room to upscale finishes and the recovery drops to 36.4 percent regionally.
Adding a bathroom performs worse than remodeling one, at 53.3 percent, which surprises people. Additions carry framing, permits, and new plumbing runs that a renovation does not. The exception is a home that is genuinely under-bathed for its bedroom count, where the added bath solves a real objection for buyers rather than adding a nicer version of something the house already has.
If your bath is due for work, our breakdown of bathroom remodeling in Chicago covers 2026 trends and current cost ranges, and if you are weighing fixtures, walk-in shower versus bathtub is the decision most likely to affect both your daily use and your buyer pool.
Two Reports, Two Very Different Answers
Here is something most contractor blogs will not tell you. The National Association of Realtors and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry publish their own 2025 Remodeling Impact Report, and it puts bathroom renovation cost recovery at 50 percent. Zonda says 80 percent nationally. Both are honest numbers measuring different things.
The Cost vs. Value Report prices a tightly specified project and asks real estate professionals what it adds to a sale price. The NAR report surveys contractors on cost and Realtors on value across all remodeling, not remodeling done specifically to sell, and NAR says so plainly in its own methodology notes. Projects done for personal reasons drag the average down, because a homeowner customizing for themselves is not optimizing for a buyer.
The NAR report adds one metric the cost data misses entirely. It scores how happy homeowners are with the finished work, and a kitchen upgrade earned a perfect 10, against an 8.2 average across all projects. Kitchen upgrades were also the project Realtors saw the biggest jump in demand for. Treat any single ROI percentage as a range, not a promise.
What Actually Moves the Needle in a Chicago Kitchen
- Cabinet fronts and hardware. The largest visual change per dollar spent. Solid boxes can often be reused. See our custom kitchen cabinets page for where custom work is and is not worth it.
- Countertops. Quartz and granite read as current to almost every buyer. Our countertop installation service covers fabrication and templating, and it is worth reading why stone samples look different in a showroom than in your kitchen.
- Lighting. Underrated and cheap. Layered ceiling and under-cabinet light changes how every other surface photographs.
- Backsplash. A small, high-visibility surface. Backsplash installation is one of the few finishes where a modest upgrade reliably reads as expensive.
- Flooring continuity. Running one floor through the kitchen and adjoining rooms makes a house feel larger without moving a wall.
- Paint. The cheapest thing on this list. Realtors rank interior painting as the top project they recommend before listing.
What Actually Moves the Needle in a Chicago Bathroom
- The shower. A dated tub-shower combo dates the whole room. A walk-in shower or a tub-to-shower conversion is usually the highest-impact single change.
- Keeping one tub in the house. Families with small children filter listings on this. Our tub installation page covers the options if you are converting elsewhere.
- Glass instead of a curtain. Glass shower doors make a small bathroom read as twice the size in photos and in person.
- Vanity and storage. Buyers open drawers. A solid-surface top with real storage below outperforms a decorative pedestal every time.
- What is behind the tile. Waterproofing and correctly sized ventilation add nothing to an appraisal and everything to whether the room survives. Read why so many bathrooms fail within two years before you let anyone value-engineer this line.
The Overbuilding Trap
The fastest way to destroy kitchen and bathroom remodel resale value is to build past your neighborhood. Buyers pay neighborhood prices. A $130,000 kitchen in a subdivision where comparable homes sell for $400,000 does not produce a $130,000 lift, and no amount of craftsmanship changes that arithmetic.
This plays out differently across Chicagoland. In Orland Park, we see a lot of builder-grade kitchens from the same construction era, which we wrote about in the builder-grade kitchen problem in Orland Park’s subdivisions. In those homes a mid-tier remodel stands out against the comps and returns well. In Naperville or Hinsdale, where buyers already expect stone and custom cabinetry, the same spend is table stakes rather than a differentiator. A useful sanity check is to keep the kitchen budget near 10 to 15 percent of your home’s value and a primary bath closer to 5 to 10 percent. Our service areas page lists the communities we work in most.
Chicago Factors That Change Your Return
Local conditions shift these numbers in ways national data cannot capture. Chicago’s housing stock is old, and opening a wall in a century-old bungalow frequently turns up knob-and-tube wiring, galvanized supply lines, or framing that was never meant to carry a header. That work is not optional and it is not visible when the job is done.
Permits are the other variable. Any project touching plumbing, electrical, or structure requires permits and inspections, and condo or high-rise units add building approvals on top. Our room-by-room permit guide explains what triggers a permit, and why kitchen remodel timelines slip covers the scheduling side. Permitted, inspected work also protects value: unpermitted renovations surface during a buyer’s inspection and turn into price reductions.
One more regional note worth knowing. Finished basements recouped 78.7 percent in our region, well above the national 71 percent and better than a midrange bath. In a market where below-grade space is common, basement remodeling deserves a place in the conversation alongside your kitchen and bath.
How to Protect Your Return
- Decide your horizon first. Selling within two years argues for a tight, visible scope. Staying ten years argues for fixing the layout properly.
- Keep the plumbing where it is unless the layout is genuinely broken. Moving services is the single biggest cost multiplier.
- Spend on what gets touched daily. Hardware, faucets, counters, and lighting outperform appliance upgrades nobody notices.
- Get written allowances for tile, stone, and fixtures. Vague allowances are where budgets quietly break.
- Never economize behind the walls. Waterproofing, ventilation, and correct electrical are invisible and non-negotiable.
- Insist on line-item pricing from every bidder so you are comparing the same scope.
If you want to see how this looks in finished work, our project gallery shows recent kitchen and bath transformations across Chicagoland, and our remodeling FAQ answers the questions that come up most often before a project starts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a kitchen remodel increase home value more than a bathroom remodel?
Yes, when the scope is comparable. In the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report, a minor midrange kitchen remodel recouped 101.2 percent in the East North Central region, while a midrange bath remodel recouped 70.9 percent. Kitchens carry more weight with buyers because they are the room people inspect first and judge hardest.
What is the highest ROI kitchen remodel?
A minor midrange remodel that keeps the existing layout. It replaces cabinet fronts and hardware, countertops, the sink and faucet, appliances, and flooring without moving plumbing or walls. It was the only interior project in the national top five of the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report.
How much of a bathroom remodel do I get back at resale?
Roughly 71 percent for a midrange remodel in the Chicago region and about 36 percent for an upscale one, according to 2025 Cost vs. Value Report regional data. The National Association of Realtors reports a lower figure of 50 percent because it measures all remodeling, not remodeling done specifically before a sale.
Should I remodel before selling my home in Chicago?
It depends on your timeline and the condition of the space. A dated kitchen or bathroom invites buyers to discount the whole house, so a targeted cosmetic update usually pays for itself. A full gut renovation done purely for resale rarely does, since you recover less than half of a major remodel.
How much should I spend on a kitchen or bathroom remodel?
A common guideline is 10 to 15 percent of your home’s value for a kitchen and 5 to 10 percent for a primary bathroom. Spending well beyond your neighborhood’s price range is the most reliable way to lose money, because buyers pay neighborhood prices regardless of finish level.
Key Takeaways
Kitchen and bathroom remodel resale value comes down to one rule: restraint outperforms ambition on the spreadsheet. A minor kitchen remodel roughly breaks even in our region. A midrange bath returns about 71 percent. Push either to upscale and you recover barely a third. Keep the layout where it works, spend on visible surfaces you touch every day, protect the parts nobody sees, and keep the total proportional to your neighborhood. Do that, and the project pays you twice, once in daily use and again at closing.
Get a Free Estimate on Your Chicago Kitchen or Bath
AMG Proline has designed and built kitchens and bathrooms across Chicago and the suburbs for more than 25 years, from our showroom in Crestwood. We quote fixed, written, line-item prices so you know exactly what your project costs before demolition starts. Explore our kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling services, or call (708) 979-3298 to schedule a free in-home consultation.