DC’s Central A/C Premium

• July 5, 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

For the last week in the DC area, the heat index has regularly eclipsed 100 degrees, a reality that makes central air conditioning an ever-more prized amenity in homes for sale. A new study from Zillow explores just how much of a premium central A/C commands around the country.

66 percent of homes sold in the U.S. in the past year had central A/C, with those homes selling at a $5,486 (or 2.5 percent) premium over homes without central air. In the DC area, 83.2 percent of homes sold in the past year had central A/C, carrying a $6,807 (or 1.7 percent) premium over homes that don't have it.

For rental accommodations, the difference is much more negligible in the DC area, with 74 percent of rentals listed on Zillow including central air and renting for $15 (or .7 percent) more a month than rentals without.

Homes for sale in Las Vegas unsurprisingly have the highest A/C premium ($13,620), although 99 percent of listings for sale in the Nevada city have central air; Baltimore, interestingly enough, comes in second nationwide, with a premium of $12,055. On the rental side, the New York City metro has the highest A/C premium by far ($275); Boston has the second-highest at $171.

All the data for the report was culled from Zillow listings between June 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, with square footage, age of home and the like controlled for; the median rents and listing prices of each subset (with or without A/C) were then compared.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the-dc-area-ac-premium/14189