How Fiber Internet Is Boosting the Real Estate Value of Homes

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The rate at which fiber-optic networks have expanded in the U.S. has not kept up with demand. Our households are more connected than ever before. We need more bandwidth for education, work and leisure, and acquiring access to fiber internet is a wise investment in your home.

Real Estate Prices Up

Real estate prices are often a telling reflection of what Americans want in their everyday lives. The fact that home prices are higher in areas that have good schools probably comes as no surprise to you. The need for a good education for your children is as important now as it was decades ago. A more recent factor that is affecting residential retail prices is access to the internet. In fact, a number of states have recently introduced internet disclosure laws for real estate, and more are expected to follow suit.

The Internet Effect

It is worth noting that the effect on real estate prices is not limited to fiber. An area that only has access to traditional satellite, for instance, will generally have suppressed residential real estate values. In a major study revealed in 2015—based on 2011-13 data—areas with cable internet of 1 Gbps or higher—which is equivalent to fiber internet at least in regard to upload speed—experienced prices that were on average 7% higher than areas with access to minimum broadband speeds or less.

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Increasing Demand for Fiber

That data is from more than a decade ago. A lot has changed since then. Many people live in smart homes with multiple devices per person in the household. The average device count in American households is expected to be about 17 in 2022. There is also the pandemic factor. The pandemic forced us as a society to expand the usage of the internet in our lives faster than we likely otherwise would have. Many of us now use the internet to work from home or attend school online, and the rate at which people are buying their movies and video games online has gone up significantly.

The Benefits of Fiber

While cable internet and satellite internet can compete with fiber to an extent—and often does in areas where both are available and not by coincidence—fiber is fundamentally superior due to the bandwidth it supports. A household with access to fiber will generally have access to at least a 1 Gbps plan. The average American pays less for 1 Mbps of fiber than 1 Mbps of cable internet. Fiber connections are also symmetrical. That means that a 1 Gbps plan gives you 1 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload. Cable internet is rarely symmetrical, and the average customer gets 20 Mbps upload or less.

Fiber Demand Up

Demand for fiber is at an all-time high for personal reasons and also for residential and commercial real estate reasons. While fiber internet networks like Charter Spectrum are expanding at the highest rate ever, it is still a relatively slow process. The industry estimates that only 50% of Americans will have fiber internet access by 2025, and it may be a decade beyond that before fiber reaches the saturation rate of cable internet.

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Fiber Internet Access Is Valuable

That makes access to fiber internet quite valuable. A fiber internet company moving into your area could increase your home value by as much as 10% or more. If you have access to fiber and make the switch, you increase the appeal of your home, and it will sell faster. If you a purchasing a home, the added cost of fiber access is likely worth it whether you plan to live out your lives there or will sell the home within the next decade.