Would You Pay More For A House With A Heat Pump? Some Americans Would

Kidding, but also kind of not. Heating and cooling systems are getting expensive, and the last thing those kids need is a $15,000 bill right after they sign away their life savings for a down payment.  

Or, more realistically, a $300 bill every month because the a/c is from 1980. 

Turns out, a lot of Americans feel the same way. According to a new report from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC), energy efficiency has become a major factor in homebuying decisions — and with HVAC using 40% of a home’s total energy usage, it’s a big expense. In this survey of more than 1,000 Americans who purchased a home within the last five years, 84% said energy efficiency was moderately or very important in their purchase decision. Even more telling, 57% said they would pay more for a home that already had an efficient heating and cooling system. 

The report also notes that rising electricity prices are consumers' top energy concern, and more than 85% say saving money on their electric bill is a priority. That's not surprising. This summer, U.S. household electric bills are projected to increase by 10.5% year-over-year, per a new report released by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA). 

“The affordability challenge is growing,” NEADA wrote. Average summer cooling expenditures are projected to rise from approximately $570 in 2020 to $792 in 2026. One in six American households is behind on its utility bills. Nearly half of homeowners (49%) have already cut back on dining out to afford rising electricity bills, 35% say cooling costs are actively straining their household finances, and 1 in 10 have even reduced spending on medical or dental care, according to a recent SupplyHouse survey. 

In other words, buyers aren't just evaluating curb appeal and school districts when they’re looking for a new home. They're also trying to avoid inheriting somebody else's high utility bill. 

The SECC report puts it plainly: "Consumers in today's housing market highly value energy efficiency." But in the same study, researchers found a significant disconnect between what buyers care about and what many real estate professionals think they care about. While 84% of homebuyers said energy efficiency was moderately or very important, only about one-third of realtors rated it that highly in influencing purchasing decisions. 

For HVAC contractors, the most interesting takeaway may not be that heat pumps can add value. It's that buyers may never know they're there. SECC's partner in the report, data analytics firm Two Fifty Seven, analyzed 143 million real estate listings nationwide and found that homes with ducted heat pumps sold between 2024 and 2025 were associated with sale price premiums of roughly 0.6% to 1%, adding an average of $2,300 to $3,900 to a median-priced home. Yet when researchers looked at listings for homes that actually had heat pumps installed, 92% of listings didn’t even mention it. 

That raises an interesting question: If efficient HVAC systems are becoming a selling point, who is responsible for making sure that value gets recognized? 

For years, homeowners have thought about HVAC equipment only when it stops working. Yet the SECC survey suggests they don't necessarily want to think about it after they buy a house, either. HVAC upgrades were the least common improvement recent buyers reported making after purchase, with only 18% saying they'd made this upgrade. That may be because buyers increasingly see heating and cooling equipment as part of the home's overall value proposition rather than a future renovation project. With buyers paying closer attention to utility bills and the age of major home systems, an efficient HVAC system is starting to resemble a new roof, replacement windows, or a kitchen renovation — an investment that can influence how buyers evaluate a property. 

The challenge is, that value can disappear if the value isn't communicated to the people making the purchasing decision. A homeowner may know they installed a high-efficiency heat pump. But years later, when it's time to sell, can they easily provide the model number, efficiency ratings, installation date, warranty information, maintenance history, or estimated energy savings? If not, buyers and their realtors may have little way of distinguishing that system from any other piece of mechanical equipment sitting in the basement. 

But this does create an opportunity. HVAC contractors are the people best positioned to explain what was installed, why it was selected, and the long-term implications of a high-efficiency system — and chances are, they can explain it in plain English. That information is valuable, and contractors who provide documentation of all this would be doing their customers a big favor down the road. 

Imagine if every homeowner received a simple "home comfort report" at project completion: equipment specifications, efficiency ratings, warranty information, maintenance recommendations, and so on. Years later, that document could be handed directly to a realtor or prospective buyer. 

Will a one-page report add thousands of dollars to a home's sale price? Well, if buyers are evaluating future operating costs alongside square footage and countertops, making the value visible can't hurt. And it certainly can’t hurt to mention that ROI when making the equipment sale. 

My sister and her husband are still looking for that first house. If they end up comparing two nearly identical homes and one has a 20-year-old HVAC system while the other has a recently installed high-efficiency heat pump, that's not a small detail. That's thousands of dollars in future costs. Wouldn’t it be nice if the seller could hand them a folder from the HVAC contractor ensuring them that their investment was solid?