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Experts reveal just how much an extra bedroom costs Houston homebuyers
It's common real estate knowledge that bedrooms are a valuable commodity, and the more you have, the more your home is probably worth. But RealtyHop recently proved that in some Texas areas, those extra bedrooms are worth much, much more than we previously thought.
The real estate website looked at median home prices in the top 100 metropolitan areas around the United States and calculated the costs for moving to — not renovating or adding on — one-, two-, three-, four-, and five-bedroom homes (and what it takes to upgrade to the next bedroom level).
Not surprisingly, it's the cheapest to move from a one-bedroom home to a two-bedroom, and securing a five-bedroom abode is the most expensive. It's when the tiers are broken out by area, however, that the numbers get interesting.
Upgrading to a two-bedroom home rings up at around $30,000 nationally, but in Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, that cost is more like $96,000 (making it the fourth-most expensive in the country).
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington isn't far behind, barely missing the top 10 with $77,000. Austin-Round Rock is up there too, landing at No. 22 with $61,450 required to get that second bedroom.
Crossing that two-bedroom threshold in Texas seems to be the most difficult, though, as not a single Texas metropolitan area shows up in the top 25 of adding a third or fourth bedroom. Those honors belong largely to West and East coasts, with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara in California topping each list.
To get this report, RealtyHop looked at median sales prices as of December 2018 for the top 100 metropolitan areas as measured by population. Metropolitan areas roughly correspond to a major city and the surrounding area (for example, the New York metro area includes the city, but also part of Connecticut, New Jersey, and more suburban or exurban parts of New York).
It's also worth noting that homes with fewer bedrooms do tend to be condominiums, while larger ones are more likely to be single-family homes.
RealtyHop also compiled the overall cost of each size of home in each area. In Houston, it says a one-bedroom will run you only $99,000, while a five-bedroom is up to $415,000. In DFW, the price of a one-bedroom home is more like $145,000, while a five-bedroom is more like $465,995, and in Austin homes start at $208,450 and go up to $552,500.
