Trader Joe's Is Secretly Making Your Home More Valuable

Whether you shop there or not. đź‘Ť

We knew the jalapeño hummus was good... but higher home values?

Now that's really delicious.

A recent study in the book Zillow Talk found that two years after a given Trader Joe's opens, the median home within a mile of that store has increased in value 10 percent more than others in the same city.

Homes within a mile of a Whole Foods also appreciate, or gain value, faster than others in the surrounding area, the study found.

Score!

Zillow analyzed nearly three million single-family homes, condos and co-ops over a 17-year period. Each home was located within a mile of some 800 separate Trader Joe's and Whole Foods stores.

The fact that homes near the stores gain value more quickly than others proves one of two things: Either grocery stores are experts at finding neighborhoods where home values are going to rise, or having a nice grocery store nearby causes home values to increase.

Or maybe it's both.

"Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are likely doing heavy research to identify... up-and-coming markets to open new stores," a Zillow spokesperson told HuffPost. "However, at the same time, amenity-rich neighborhoods are very desirable to homebuyers."

So what's a homeowner to do? If you live near Trader Joe's or Whole Foods (or Starbucks, for that matter), good news: Your home will likely have a higher asking price than others when you try to sell it. And if you're looking to move, it might be worth checking Whole Foods and Trader Joe's expansion plans first. Trader Joe's recently announced that it's opening a store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which, by the way, is the best city in America you're not visiting.

Happy hunting!

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