Yahoo Finance The ‘Barbie’ movie may have apparently temporarily triggered an international pink paint shortage – but here’s why homeowners shouldn’t fret if fuchsia goes out of stock
Barbiecore may be the hot new trend of 2023 — but it won’t necessarily boost your home value in today’s real estate market.
The Barbie movie, of course, used plenty of pink in the set design for the Mattel doll’s three-story dreamhouse, complete with a twisty slide and pool.
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But the film’s usage of vibrant pink from Rosco apparently helped cause an international shortage at the paint company. “The world ran out of pink,” production designer Sarah Greenwood told Architectural Digest.
Of course, there were other factors that contributed to the global shortage that resulted after the Barbie movie cleaned out the paint manufacturer’s supply. The COVID-19 pandemic had severely impacted the global supply chain, plus the company was still recovering from the Texas deep freeze in 2021, which affected its paint production materials.
However, if you’re planning on selling your house anytime soon, it’s just as well if you can’t get your hands on pink paint. Data from online real estate marketplace Zillow shows you can get up to $5,000 more for your home simply by choosing the right colors for your walls — and pink doesn’t make the cut.
How homebuyers are reacting to color
Zillow surveyed recent and prospective homebuyers in 2021 to find out which colors they felt were worth paying a higher price.
Of the 15 colors the survey's participants were shown, these were the ones the consumers were most likely to increase — or decrease — their bids for, depending on the room.
In the bathroom
Light blue is the most popular color for bathrooms, Zillow found. Survey participants said a light blue bathroom would be enough to justify a 1.6% higher offer price — about $5,000 on a $290,000 home.
Neutral colors — gray, dark gray, light yellow and off-white — were found to increase the likelihood that participants would either choose to view a home or make a higher bid.
While light yellow was considered attractive as a bathroom hue, bright yellow, bright green, bright red and pink were all considered turnoffs.
“Buyers tend to veer away from vibrant colors in the bathroom, so it is best to go with a softer shade," Zillow says in its report.
In the kitchen
White walls in the kitchen increased interest in touring or purchasing a home among survey participants.
But interestingly, their preferred alternatives to white weren't just neutral colors. While light yellow and off-white scored well, dark gray, dark red and dark green also caught more than a few eyes.
As with the bathroom, participants were not keen on the idea of an intensely-colored kitchen. Bright green, pink, bright yellow and bright red all drew negative reactions.
“Bright red could decrease the price that buyers would be willing to offer by nearly $1,500, on average,” Zillow says. “A kitchen painted bright yellow was least likely to inspire intentions of purchasing the home.”
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In the living room
Gray rules supreme when it comes to preferred living room colors, with light green, white, dark gray and light yellow also scoring positively.
Light green, Zillow says, “brought an average offer-price increase of several hundreds" of dollars.
The usual suspects scored poorly for living room color: pink, bright green and bright yellow.
“On average, bright green and bright yellow living rooms decreased interest among surveyed buyers to tour a property,” says Zillow. “Both colors, on average, had a negative effect on prospective offer prices.”
In the bedroom
Though neutral colors were the top pick for bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms, Zillow’s survey participants were a little more adventurous about the boudoir. Dark blue was the bedroom color that would most increase the average price consumers were willing to offer.
Light blue was another strong performer, along with white, bright blue and dark gray.
Yet again, bright yellow, bright green and pink were least likely to have a positive impact on buyers.
“In a separate survey of potential buyers and sellers, both groups claimed they’d be less likely to paint a room any of those colors, regardless of the room’s purpose," Zillow says.
Don’t get trapped by trends
However, if the Barbiecore movement inspires you to switch things up at home, you’re likely to be in good company.
Back in November 2022, home decor magazine Better Homes and Gardens projected that the hot pink hue would be popping up in homes across the country this year.
And then in December, the pigmentation experts at Pantone announced their "color of the year" for 2023. The purply-red “Viva Magenta” was chosen for being a “powerful” and “empowering” color that “encourages experimentation and self-expression without restraint.”
While Barbiecore pink didn’t make Pantone’s number-one spot, Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, told USA Today that they acknowledged the “impactful statement” the color made and that her staff simply felt the magenta shade was “the bigger picture play.”
That being said, if you’re hoping to sell your home in the next few years, those who are thinking of “the biggest picture play” would be wise to keep Zillow's color findings in mind. That is, only if getting the highest offer for your home is the plan. (And why wouldn't it be?)
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
