Even if you don’t plan to live in one house your whole life, installing solar panels makes a lot of sense. You’ll likely sell it faster and you can get up to $20,000 more for a home with a solar system. Learn how solar panels increase property costs and why they make houses more popular on the market in this article.
Key takeaways
People looking to buy homes prefer ones with built-in clean energy generators. In California, houses with solar panels used to sell 20% faster than those without, according to experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). If the PV installation is large enough, it can power everything in a house. For a buyer, getting a solar system along with the house means the ever-growing bills will be much less of a problem.
2.2%
average annual increase in electricity costs in the US
Environmental friendliness is what is also attractive about solar-paneled houses. Solar panels produce no carbon emissions, odor, or noise. Paired with a battery system, they are a great alternative to gas generators. With growing concerns about climate change, more people are opting for green energy to contribute to the fight against global warming.
A key reason for that growing demand is that solar panels improve a home's energy efficiency, measured by the Home Energy Rating System (HERS). HERS assigns scores on a scale from 0 to 150, with lower scores indicating better energy efficiency. Resale houses are rated at around 130, while new ones could score around 100.
The HERS score directly impacts the selling price, with lower-scoring homes being 3-5% more expensive and selling 2.7% more often. Buyers of HERS-rated homes also tend to have better mortgage profiles. To boost the HERS score and raise resale value, homeowners are encouraged to do a home energy audit and consider energy-efficient upgrades, like installing solar panels.
In Europe, some governments require homeowners to improve energy efficiency to the point where you can’t sell or rent a house if its score is too low. Similar regulations might be introduced in the US, making homes with clean energy generators for sale more appealing to buyers.
In the past, many people didn’t like how solar panels affected a home's appearance. Blue-ish polycrystalline solar panels had a hard time blending with the roof and people often found them ugly. Monocrystalline panels that became dominant on the market in the pas decade have a much better design. Black solar panels blend well with a house's aesthetic and sometimes even enhance its overall look. The best-looking all-black panels come from premium brands like Solaria, Maxeon, Q CELLS, Silfab and more.
Q CELLS 405W Solar Panel 132 Cell Q.PEAK DUO BLK ML-G10+ Assembled in USA
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Adding solar panels typically increases your property's assessed value, as it's considered a permanent home improvement that enhances the property's features and efficiency. When assessors evaluate your property, they look at these installations as valuable upgrades that can affect your home's overall worth. On average, each kilowatt of solar capacity adds about $4,000-$5,000 to your property's assessed value, but this varies significantly based on your location, the system's age, and local energy costs.
For example, if you install a 6kW solar system, it could potentially increase your property's assessed value by $24,000-$30,000. This increase in assessed value would normally lead to higher property taxes. However, many states have implemented specific exemptions to encourage solar adoption.
Many states offer property tax exemptions for solar installations to encourage renewable energy adoption. It’s important to research them beforehand. Here's some information about what major states provide:
Before installing solar panels, check with your local tax assessor's office, as exemption policies can change and may require specific applications or certifications to qualify. Some municipalities might have additional local incentives or different regulations that affect how solar installations impact your property taxes.
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Having a solar system typically makes your home more valuable and attractive to prospective buyers. A house with solar panels can sell for approximately 4% more than one without, according to study by real-estate agency Zillow. With the average cost of a house in the U.S. in 2024 being $500,000, adding solar panels could potentially increase home its values by $10,000-$20,000. The actual boost may vary based on the condition of your panels and roof, but when you sell a house with solar panels, you generally recover the money you invested in them.
$170
average monthly electric bill in the US in 2025
For buyers, getting a house with a solar system and/or energy storage already installed is also a good deal. They get a low electric bill from the start so the solar panel installation starts saving them money right away. They also don’t have to go through the installation and permitting process of a PV system. They can sometimes secure a good net metering deal with utility from the previous owner. The comfort of being able to look at logs for solar system performance from previous months should also be considered.
A home with a solar system may be a more attractive option to buyers but not if the system is leased. A contract with the leasing company clarifies what exactly happens to solar panels when the house owner changes, but in general, buyers don’t want property that comes with the baggage of extra payments. If a system is bought through a loan, this may also complicate the situation.
The average payback time of a solar system in the US is 7-8 years. That means the panels pay off 2-3 times throughout their lifespan — a solid investment in the future. If you buy a house with a 10-year-old solar system, it will likely bring back its value one more time in your possession.
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Andrey had been a news editor and freelance writer for a number of medias before joining A1 SolarStore team. Climate change and its impact on people's lives has always been among his interests and it partially explains his degree in Philosophy and Ethics.
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