4 min readYour home is a deeply personal place, and being inside it should make you feel happy and calm. It should look and feel the way you want while you’re living there, whether that’s colorful, cozy, minimalist, or whatever you desire. Once you decide it’s time to sell, however, it might be a good idea to make some changes that’ll appeal to potential buyers. For example, there are certain exterior paint colors that decrease home value—so you may want to swap yours out before that "For Sale" sign goes up.
Though paint color is a relatively easy home feature to change, it matters a lot when it comes to curb appeal. “Many buyers can’t look beyond very taste-specific colors, which is one of the reasons realtors put such an emphasis on staging, which often includes having rooms painted,” says Frank D. Isoldi, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in Westfield, New Jersey.
Choosing the wrong paint color could cost the typical U.S. homeowner more than $8,000 when it comes time to sell, says Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert. “That’s because when buyers are purchasing a home, they’re navigating a complex environment with a lot of uncertainty,” she explains. “We don’t buy homes every day, so we don’t have the experience or expertise to identify if a home has been lovingly cared for or if it has a mountain of problems lurking behind the walls. As a result, we use visual cues like color to fill in the blanks and decide if a home is up-to-date or well-maintained.”
Keep reading to find out the specific paint colors that could decrease your home’s value.
Additional copy by Meghan Shouse.
What Are the Paint Colors That Decrease Home Value?
According to the Fixr report on interior trends for 2026, the most off-putting and unappealing colors for potential buyers are overly bright hues as a whole for the exterior. Of the 86 interior designers polled for this report, 83 percent agreed that these hues are the worst.
However, the specific color that’s most off-putting for buyers is red. The home remodeling site polled 86 interior designers and home stagers, and 37 percent agreed that red turns away buyers. It’s a strong color and doesn’t align with everyone’s tastes.
Several real estate professionals we chatted with agreed that deep shades of red are a no-go when it comes to resale value. “[Red] can look very elegant in the right space with the right lighting and furniture, but for the most part, it’s a difficult shade to nail and makes most rooms feel smaller and dated,” Isoldi says.
Red walls can also come across as harsh and intense, says Marissa Castello, a realtor at Maison Real Estate in Charleston, South Carolina. “Red tends to put people on edge—physiologically, people see red and feel danger or ‘stop’!” she says.
The second worst color for resale value is cool gray, according to the Fixr study, with 35 percent of design professionals saying to steer clear of it if you’re planning to sell. Other colors that you should think twice about if you’re listing your home, according to the study, include builder beige, high-gloss white, and flat black.
Here are some more colors to avoid if you’re looking to sell, broken down room by room.
Bright Yellow in the Kitchen
Ochre yellow kitchens ranked at the bottom for offer price, buyer interest, and tour intentions, according to Zillow’s data. While vibrant colors can add energy, shades like bright yellow can easily overpower a kitchen, says Carolyn Cerminara, founder and principal designer of Nashville, Tennessee-based Cerminara Design. “The kitchen should be a space for cooking and gathering, and buyers often feel these bold tones are just too intense,” she says.
Not that all white is necessarily the answer either. If your cabinets are white, avoid white walls in the kitchen because it will make the space look “builder grade,” says designer Kristina Phillips.
Bold Red in the Bathroom
Just like on the exterior of the home, having bold red walls in the bathroom can have offers coming in about $7,971 lower than if the bathroom was painted white, according to Zillow. This is the single largest impact they found in any room of any color. If you want a bright red bathroom though, go for it! Maybe just paint over it when it’s time to sell.
Blush Pink in the Bathroom
Staying within the confines of this private space, blush pink walls could get you about $6,013 less, according to Zillow. While this seems to be a bit of a deflection from the other brighter tones listed, it remains an underperformer.
White or Neons on the Front Door
One place that designers and real estate professionals love to see a splash of color is on the front door. White front doors seem to blend in too much and come across as boring, says Kristi Weaver, a designer and project manager at Freemodel, a presale home renovation company. Plus, they’re hard to keep clean, and if they look dingy, they can hurt your curb appeal.
Phillips says she likes a pop, like a red or peacock blue, depending on the color of the home. “No matter what your house color is, though, I would avoid anything neon for a front door color,” she says.
