It's been a long-held belief that walls should be a "blank canvas", and that neutral colors allow for any type of interior design. Even accent walls are an addition dictated by the resident, not a style decision made by the community itself.

But what if paint colors could actually be tied to improvements in rent rates?

Zillow studied how different color palates impacted the sale prices of homes relative to their peers and found some interesting correlations:

• Dark gray is associated with higher offer prices than white in every room of the home studied
• Homes with a charcoal gray kitchen can sell for an estimated $2,512 more than similar homes
• A white kitchen can hurt a home's sale price by more than $600

It's important to note that these findings are from 2023, and changes in style may offer different specific results in 2024 and beyond, but at the end of the day, the important part was that color played a role in the sale price of the home at all.

Just as we might think that certain kitchen fixtures and materials might impact rental rates, paint color seems to also make an impression.

One important consideration is whether these findings translate to apartments, even at a smaller scale, but it's worth reviewing. In fact, it would probably be fairly simple to A/B test click rates on websites featuring plain white apartment photos versus different color palates.