Does Solar Increase Home Value?

If you're a homeowner with solar panels — or thinking about installing them — you've probably wondered whether that investment actually pays off when it's time to sell. The short answer: yes, and the data behind it is stronger than most people realize.

What the research actually shows

The conversation about solar and home value usually traces back to a 2019 Zillow study, which found that homes with solar panels sold for about 4.1% more than comparable homes without them — roughly $10,000 for a median-priced home at the time.

That number is now out of date, and not in the direction you'd expect. Solar adoption has more than doubled since then, and buyers have grown far more comfortable with the technology. A more recent analysis using current Zillow data found that homes with solar now sell for closer to 6.9% more than non-solar homes — an average of about $25,000 in additional sale price nationally. Other independent research looking specifically at owned solar systems has found premiums ranging from 5% to as high as 10%, depending on the market and how long the system has been installed.

It depends heavily on where you live

Solar's impact on home value isn't uniform across the country. Some of the largest premiums show up in states with high electricity costs or strong solar adoption, including California, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Florida. In some individual metro areas, the premium has been measured well above the national average — New York City, for example, has shown a premium roughly double that of lower-premium markets like Riverside, California. If you live in one of these higher-premium states, the value your solar system adds may be significantly higher than the national headline number.

The catch almost nobody talks about: owned vs. leased

Here's the part that gets left out of most articles on this topic, and it matters enormously if you're trying to figure out what your own situation looks like: the resale premium applies to owned solar systems, not leased ones. If your solar panels are financed through a lease or a power purchase agreement (PPA) — meaning a third party still owns the equipment — research has found no measurable resale premium at all. The savings are real for your monthly electric bill, but they don't currently translate into added home value, since a buyer would be taking on someone else's equipment and contract rather than gaining an asset outright.

If you're not sure whether your system is owned or leased, that's the first thing to check before assuming a sale-price bump is coming your way.

Why your appraisal might miss this entirely

Here's the problem: most standard home appraisals aren't built to capture any of this. A typical appraisal leans heavily on square footage, bedroom and bathroom counts, and recent comparable sales in the neighborhood — not on the specific energy savings or income value a solar system provides. Unless an appraiser has specific training in green-home valuation, the solar system on your roof may get glossed over or valued using rough, generic assumptions rather than the real, calculable savings it provides.

That's a meaningful gap. If your home is worth 5-10% more because of solar, and your appraisal doesn't account for that, you could be leaving thousands of dollars on the table during a sale, a refinance, or an insurance claim — money that a standard appraisal was never designed to find in the first place.

Closing the gap

This is exactly the gap a dedicated solar valuation report is built to close. Rather than relying on a generic appraisal process that wasn't designed with solar in mind, a solar-specific valuation looks directly at your system's production, your local utility rates, and comparable solar-home sales to calculate what your system is actually adding to your property's value — a number you can bring to your realtor, your appraiser, or your lender.

If you own your solar system and you're getting ready to sell, refinance, or just want to know where you stand, it's worth finding out the real number before someone else's default assumptions decide it for you.

Solar resale premium data referenced above comes from recent analyses using Zillow sales data and industry research on solar home valuation, current as of 2025-2026 market conditions.