According to Angie, it costs quite a bit of money to build a pool - about $36,000 on average - and in-ground pools often cost more than double that estimate. The cost of maintaining a pool shouldn't be overlooked.

But it can also pay off when it comes time to sell your home. Properties with pools typically list for 8% more than comparable properties in the neighbourhood that don't have pools. What's more, that premium has been rising.

In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the extra value swimming pools brought to a home's price had been declining, according to an analysis by Realtor.com. But then the pandemic hit. As more and more people tended to buy larger homes on bigger plots away from city centres, the premium for swimming pools rose, suggesting that demand was increasing.

Especially after the restriction, we are seeing a real real realisation of the need for more space and a more comfortable home.

That means there's more demand for homes with large yards and pools, says Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel and a national real estate appraiser.

List prices for homes with pools have risen most significantly in the Midwest and South over the past few years. The West has seen the smallest and most stable increases. And in the Northeast, the extra value pools bring to a home fluctuates more.

Miller said the impact of pools on home prices may not be obvious.

Miller says, "If you're in a certain neighbourhood, like an outer suburb of Minneapolis, and then compare it to a suburb of Miami, in one of those two places, a pool is standard."

If 99% of homes have pools, then having a pool is an inherent value; but if you're one of the people who doesn't have a pool, then it's a penalty.

Miller did a similar analysis, only looking at Greenwich, Connecticut, an affluent suburb of New York City. He compared properties with and without pools and how they changed during the pandemic.

Miller says the differences are surprising." The number of deals with pools increased, and the prices of homes with pools grew faster.

Data from Realtor.com supports the idea that pool premiums grew during the pandemic. in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the value added to listings with pools declined from about 10 per cent to nearly 6 per cent. But by 2021, pool premiums began to rise again, and, with the exception of a dip in mid-2022 when mortgage rates first increased, they have been picking up. in July 2023, this premium hit a multi-year high.

That's especially true for luxury home buyers, said Jennifer Lenz, managing director of Dolly Lenz Real Estate, which has offices in New York and Florida.

In many metropolitan areas with warm climates, having a pool is almost a requirement for luxury home buyers to purchase a home, Lenz said. For these buyers, a pool is a status symbol in addition to a great place to cool off or relax. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage rates were lower and home prices were higher, so homebuyers prioritised quality lifestyle amenities like pools. And the penalty for not having these amenities grew.

Homebuyers want the cost of adding a pool to be reflected in the purchase price of a home. The time and effort required to install a pool can cause buyers to look elsewhere.

To determine the current premium for single family homes with pools, we looked at Realtor.com's listing data from last year. Then, for illustrative purposes, we also looked at data from 2017. We looked at the price per square foot for homes with and without pools and only compared homes with the same number of bedrooms and located in the same postcode. This was done to ensure that we were not comparing average homes to luxury homes and to account for price differences between neighbourhoods.

We aggregated all of these zip code-level price differences to their respective metro areas and weighted them according to the number of listings, so that postcodes with fewer listings were not overrepresented in the analysis.

Ready to dive into where pools add the most value to a home? Here are the top 10 metro areas where sellers listed homes with the largest pool price premiums.

1. Fort Myers, Florida

Median list price for single-family homes: $539,000

Pool premium: 20.4

2. Baton Rouge, LA

Median list price for single-family homes: $345,000

Pool premium: 13.9

3. Jackson, Michigan

Median list price for single-family homes: $279,000

Pool premium: 11.7

4. Dayton, Ohio

Median list price for single-family homes: $249,900

Pool premium: 11.6

5. pittsburgh, pennsylvania

Median list price for single-family homes: $225,000

Pool premium: 11.5

6. Wichita, Kansas

Median list price for single-family homes: $220,000

Swimming pool premium: 11

7. Kansas City, Missouri

Median list price for single-family homes: $450,000

Swimming pool premium: 8.9

8. Las Vegas, Nevada

Median list price for single-family homes: $509,999

Pool premium: 8.2

9. Albuquerque, New Mexico

Median list price for single-family homes: $425,000

Swimming pool premium: 7.4

10. knoxville, tennessee

Median list price for single-family homes: $484,000

Swimming pool premium: 7.3