An Analysis of Solar Home Paired Sales across Six States

Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations on some US homes still receive no value during an appraisal because comparable home sales are lacking. This first-of-its-kind study uses appraisal methods to evaluate sale price premiums for owned PV systems on single-unit detached houses across six states that were also evaluated in a large statistical study. The results provide strong, appraisal-based evidence of PV premiums in all the states studied, and the results support use of cost- and income-based PV premium estimates when paired sales analysis is impossible. The appraised premiums agree with statistical modeling results, which bolsters the suitability of both approaches for estimating PV home premiums.