Does Owning Solar Panels Actually Raise My Woodland Hills Home's Value?

Jonathan Lopez, Woodland Hills Realtor | Jim Sandoval Group | CA DRE #02282844 · Updated September 2026

Solar is everywhere across west Woodland Hills rooftops, a natural result of California's sun, high electricity rates, and years of state incentive programs. When it comes time to sell, homeowners with solar almost always ask the same question: does this actually help my home sell for more? The honest answer depends entirely on one detail most sellers don't think to check first: whether the system is owned outright or financed through a lease or power purchase agreement.

The Landmark Study, and What It Actually Found

In 2015, a multi-institutional research team led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published "Selling Into the Sun," still the most authoritative study on this question more than a decade later. Researchers analyzed almost 22,000 home sales across eight states, nearly 4,000 of which had photovoltaic (PV) systems, and found that home buyers consistently paid more for homes with host-owned solar, averaging about $4 per installed watt. For an average-sized 3.6 kW system at the time of the study, that worked out to a premium of roughly $15,000.

What That Means for a Modern System

Residential solar systems installed today tend to run larger than the 3.6 kW average from the study's era, often in the 6 kW range for a typical single-family home. Applying the same $4 per watt figure to a 6 kW system puts the premium at roughly $24,000, real math built on the study's own rate, not a new or invented statistic. The study also found a "green cachet" effect, meaning buyers pay a base premium just for having solar at all, plus incrementally more as system size increases, and that the premium depreciates as a system ages, so a newer, well-documented system generally commands more than an older one. This is a similar valuation principle to how an ADU affects a Woodland Hills home's appraised value, where documentation and condition drive how much of the real cost gets recognized at resale.

Leased Panels and PPAs Are a Different Asset Entirely

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, the standards most conventional lenders and appraisers work from, treat leased solar panels and power purchase agreements as personal property rather than a fixture that adds to the home's value. That means an appraiser generally assigns the system zero value, regardless of how much the homeowner has saved on electricity.

The Bigger Complication: the Buyer Has to Qualify, Too

A leased system or PPA doesn't just fail to add value, it can actively complicate a sale. The next buyer typically has to either assume the existing lease or the seller has to buy it out before closing. Assuming a lease usually requires the buyer to pass a credit check, often needing a score above 680, and the monthly lease payment can be added to their debt-to-income ratio during mortgage underwriting. That combination narrows the pool of buyers who can even qualify, and industry data suggests leased-solar homes can take meaningfully longer to sell than comparable homes without that complication.

Buying Out a Lease Before Listing

Some sellers choose to pay off the remaining lease balance before putting the home on the market, converting a leased system into an owned one and removing the qualification hurdle for buyers entirely. Buyout costs vary by contract terms and how many years remain, but can run $20,000 or more. Whether that buyout makes financial sense depends on the specific contract, the remaining term, and how it compares to the ownership premium an appraiser or buyer would actually recognize.

What to Gather Before Listing a Home With Solar

If your system is owned, pull together the original installation contract, any warranty documentation, and your production history, appraisers and buyers both respond better to a well-documented system than a "trust me, it saves money" pitch. If your system is leased or under a PPA, request the payoff amount and lease terms early, since that number needs to factor into your listing strategy and net proceeds either way. This is worth planning alongside other real, verifiable upgrades, the same way a documented pool's condition and permits affect its resale value rather than its perceived lifestyle appeal alone.

Frequently Asked Questions