Bathtubs Are on the Way Out, but There’s a Catch

Conventional wisdom says you should feel free to decorate and remodel your home as you like. But at the same time, it also says that if you plan to sell your place at some point, you’ll want to make sure it appeals to the majority of homebuyers. The landlord special can be painted over. You can always remove the wallpaper. But remodeling is where it gets tricky. It’s expensive, extensive, and you want to make sure that the changes you make correspond with increasing value in your home. 

Bathroom remodeling is a high investment project that can come with a high reward. After all, if a buyer looks at your bathroom and sees something in serious need of repair, they may want to walk away and find something a bit more turnkey. But knowing what to renovate, get rid of, and replace altogether can be challenging, and I’ve been confused by multiple reports that say that bathtubs are out — and people are replacing them with spa-like shower solutions. So I reached out to professionals — and got a clear answer.

I was a kid during the era of the “Calgon, take me away!” bath product commercials. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the gist: A frazzled mom standing in a chaotic household would utter the phrase and be immediately transported to a luxurious bubble bath, where her troubles would simply soak away. That commercial has stuck with me over the years (ugh, I mean decades), but as much as I love a bubble bath, I can count the number of times I have actually filled our bathtub on one hand.

It’s not just a Northeast thing, either. “In Miami Beach, buyers don’t care much about outdated bathtubs you still see in some homes,” says Laura Barrera, luxury real estate advisor at Douglas Elliman David Siddons Group in Miami Beach, Florida. “I’ve shown properties to clients where the reaction was basically, ‘Why is this still here?’” 

And multiple reports — like Angi’s 2024 State of Home Spending Report — have found that homeowners are planning on getting rid of their bathtubs for large, groutless showers, like the type you’d see at a nice hotel. Another 2025 report from Zillow found that folks were working to replace their bathtub shower combo with “wet rooms,” a luxurious, spa-like shower space that has a bathtub in the corner, so you can shower freely, without worrying about stepping in and out of the tub. 

But that doesn’t mean you should rip out your tub. There are important home value adds to consider.

Even though it’s important to consider what potential homebuyers want, homeowners should pause before letting this shift in consumer sentiment convince them to ditch the tub. “You can, in fact, make a pretty compelling argument [that] depending on the type of property you have, you could be shooting yourself in the foot,” Beauchamp says.

For example, if you live in a studio apartment, a space that would most likely be home to a single person or two people at most if you ever move out, it would make sense to swap out your bathtub for something with a smaller footprint. Your assumption would reasonably be that the next occupants would be a single person or a couple without children. Or at least, no human children. But even then, think twice — Beauchamp says that pet owners often like having a tub to wash their fur children.

My husband and I live in a small two-bedroom Cape Cod located in a great school district near a beautiful park. The chances are high that a small family will buy our home — especially since we have two bathrooms, one with a tub and one with a shower, an anomaly for a home our size. For this reason, we wouldn’t think of removing the one bathtub we have. And if we had just the one bathroom, we wouldn’t even be having the tub/no tub conversation.

“If it is a property that conceivably could house some configuration of a family, they’re always going to want a bathtub,” Beauchamp says. Personal preferences are important, but it’s helpful to think of who the buyer pool might be when it’s time to sell, she explains. 

This is not to say, of course, that a single person or an older couple looking to downsize wouldn’t be interested in buying our home. But were we to get rid of the tub, we are essentially saying goodbye to a large portion of buyers, Beauchamp says. And it’s important to note that having a walk-in shower is really important from an accessibility standpoint — yes, you can keep the tub, but ensuring that someone with different mobility needs can easily get in and out of the shower is also very important.

With inflation on the rise and mortgage rates not budging (as yet), Beauchamp says that many would-be homebuyers are staying put for now. That means sellers have to make the most of the buyers who are active. “In a market that already has challenges, why would you want to cut off a potential portion of your buyer pool?” she says.

All in all: It depends. If you have multiple bathrooms with bathtubs, you might want to consider swapping one out for a large, walk-in, spa-like shower, for accessibility needs and to appeal to a wide array of buyers. If you live in a property that might not attract families, you can also consider getting rid of your tub. 

If you have a small bathroom that seems overpowered by a tub, you might consider making the switch to a shower. 

Provided a bathroom renovation includes an accessible shower with a sleek, spa-like aesthetic — think flush entry and double showerheads — homeowners won’t be reducing the value of their property, even if it’s the only bath. “A new shower always makes more of an impact than keeping an old tub,” Barrera explains. But if you like your bathtub, use it, and if you see no use in getting rid of it, then don’t. 

Beauchamp notes that kitchen and bath remodels are among the most expensive projects for homeowners. And if you’ve redone a bathroom already, it might be enough for buyers to ditch their “Calgon, take me away!” daydreams. “No one wants to rip apart a perfectly beautiful bathroom to put in a bathtub,” Beauchamp says.