Brett Arends at the Wall Street Journal calculates the cost of a backyard pool and advises prospective pool-owners to tread carefully. Arends estimates that installation costs run from $25,000-$50,000, and ongoing costs can easily hit $3,000 a year. Financial experts agree: “It’s definitely not an investment. It’s a big liability, if anything,” says Jim Holtzman, a financial planner. “I question whether it adds anything to the [sale price],” says Ed Rose, a financial planner in Florida. “It may contribute something, but you’ll never get your money out of it on the resale.” Plus there’s that pesky safety issue. (HT: Planet Money) [%comments]
More Bad News for Swimming Pools
TAGS: Freakonomics, safety
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Does home insurance cost increase when there is a pool on the property? I would think so just considering the risks of having a pool (neighborhood kids getting hurt, destructive pool scum, etc).
You’re missing the point. A pool is there because the owners want to float around in it in the privacy of their own backyard. How much is that worth? It may well be like one of those credit card ads: Priceless.
It’d be interesting to get an estimate on whether any other form of backyard landscaping pays for itself versus turning into a money sink.
If you have a pool that you abhor. What are the economics of abandoning it, maintaining it, getting rid of it?
to challenge the conventional wisdom as well…the use of the swimming pool dramatically declines (long tail) with the amount of time you have it so it eventually becomes a giant chemical storage reservoir. I speak from first hand experience.
British swimming pools are self-filling.
That assumes you have a house. It’s makes economically much more sense to live in a wooden barrel underneath a bridge. I’m surprised they didn’t look into THAT.
In the mean time I will enjoy floating in my pool.
#4, when we were looking into buying a house with an unwanted pool a few years ago, it was going to be about $5k to jackhammer the pool and fill in the hole.