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Guide

What a Kitchen Remodel Really Returns at Resale in Chicagoland

If you are weighing a kitchen project against what it will do for your home's value, the honest answer is: it depends almost entirely on scope. The same 200-square-foot kitchen can return more than its cost or barely a third of it, depending on how deep you go. We sell countertops for a living, so we have every incentive to tell you a remodel pays for itself — and we are telling you instead what the major industry studies actually show, and how the numbers look in Chicago and its suburbs rather than in a national average.

The 2025 headline numbers

Zonda's Cost vs. Value Report — the industry's standard study, built from standardized project costs and resale-value opinions of real estate professionals across 119 U.S. markets — put the 2025 national averages at:

  • Minor kitchen remodel (midrange): $28,458 cost, $32,141 added at resale — 112.9% recouped. The only interior project in the national top five.
  • Major kitchen remodel (midrange): $82,793 cost, $42,130 at resale — 50.9% recouped.
  • Major kitchen remodel (upscale): $164,104 cost, $58,561 at resale — 35.7% recouped.

Note what "minor" means in that study: cabinet boxes stay, door and drawer fronts are replaced with new Shaker-style panels and hardware, appliances are swapped for midrange models, counters become new laminate, plus a new sink, faucet, resilient flooring, and paint. It is a surface-level refresh, not a gut job — and that is exactly why it pays back. The visible change is large; the invisible cost (moving walls, plumbing, electrical) is zero.

The Midwest discount

Regional tables from the same study consistently show the East North Central division — the census region Illinois shares with Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin — running below the national average. In the 2024 edition:

  • Minor midrange remodel: $26,263 cost, $23,576 at resale — 89.8% recouped (national that year: 96.1%)
  • Major midrange remodel: $81,000 cost, $34,917 at resale — 43.1% (national: 49.5%)
  • Major upscale remodel: $156,638 cost, $54,013 at resale — 34.5% (national: 38.0%)

The pattern is worth understanding: projects here cost roughly what they cost anywhere, but more affordable Midwest home prices cap what a buyer will pay for finishes. A $160,000 kitchen in a neighborhood of $350,000 houses does not create a $510,000 house — not in Elk Grove Village, not anywhere.

The city-level data is the number that matters most around here. Chicago's 2025 figures: a minor remodel recoups about 94.4% ($27,187 cost, $25,669 at resale), a midrange major remodel about 44.2%, and an upscale remodel about 30.6%. If you are shopping across state lines, the published Madison and Indianapolis figures land in the same order — and that ordering never changes anywhere in the region: the lighter the scope, the higher the percentage returned.

The second opinion: Realtors report flatter returns

The National Association of Realtors' 2025 Remodeling Impact Report, published April 2025, surveys members about real-world remodels and lands lower: 60% cost recovery for a complete kitchen renovation and 60% for a minor kitchen upgrade. The same report gives kitchen upgrades a perfect "Joy Score" of 10 — owners love the result — and kitchen upgrades topped the list of projects Realtors saw increased buyer demand for. Yet when Realtors advise sellers on what to do before listing, their top recommendations are painting and roofing, not kitchens.

Why do the studies disagree? Methodology. Cost vs. Value pairs fixed project specs with professional opinions of added value; NAR surveys cover varied real projects at varied quality levels. Neither is a guarantee for your house. Read them as brackets: a light kitchen refresh in Chicagoland plausibly returns 60-95% of its cost; a full renovation returns 35-60%.

How to use these numbers

Selling within a year or two? Stay inside the minor-remodel scope — paint or new door fronts, counters, hardware, lighting, maybe appliances. It is the only kitchen scope with a realistic chance of near-full payback in this market, and it targets what buyers actually screen for: a kitchen that needs nothing. (Yes, counters are on that short list. No, that is not why we wrote this — the studies put them there, not us.)

Staying five or more years? Buy the kitchen you want, and count the unrecovered half of a major remodel as the price of living in it. That is the honest frame, not a consolation: an $80,000 remodel that returns $40,000 at resale cost you $40,000 to enjoy for a decade — about $11 a day.

Either way, match the block. The upscale tier returns 30-36 cents on the dollar here precisely because buyers shopping a given street will not pay luxury-kitchen prices on it. Spend where wear shows — counters, fronts, floors — and be skeptical of any sales pitch claiming a big remodel "pays for itself." In Chicagoland, only the modest one comes close.

Sources

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