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Key Points
- HomeBuddy's Walk-In Shower Cost Index is based on 9,171 real project requests submitted through HomeBuddy's lead form between April 2025 and June 2026, across 49 U.S. states — not a survey, but actual homeowner project data.
- The median walk-in shower project costs $15,900, with most projects falling between $13,500 and $18,800, based on 8,945 project requests after outlier removal.
- Across the 26 states with at least 100 project requests, the median price ranges from $13,978 in Arizona to $18,900 in Mississippi — a spread of nearly $5,000 depending on where the project is located.
- Converting from a bathtub to a walk-in shower costs almost the same as converting from an existing shower: a median of $15,791 versus $16,007, a difference of about 1%, based on 8,463 project requests.
- Median project price barely moves by property type, from $15,458 for mobile/manufactured homes to $15,915 for apartments — a spread of less than 3% across 8,880 requests.
Overall Cost Summary
Based on 8,945 project requests remaining after outlier removal (226 records, 2.5% of the dataset, were excluded — see Methodology), the median walk-in shower project costs $15,900. Most projects fall between $13,500 (25th percentile) and $18,800 (75th percentile).
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N = 8,945 project requests (outlier-removed) · Apr 2025–Jun 2026 · Source: HomeBuddy lead data
Cost by Project Type
HomeBuddy's lead form distinguishes between converting an existing bathtub into a walk-in shower and converting an existing shower into a walk-in shower. The two paths show almost no price difference:
| Project Type | N | Median | P25 | P75 | Reliability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tub → walk-in shower | 5,724 | $15,791 | $13,409 | $18,561 | Reliable |
| Existing shower → walk-in shower | 2,739 | $16,007 | $13,549 | $19,110 | Reliable |
| Not sure / unspecified | 328 | $15,992 | $13,757 | $19,277 | Reliable |
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Bars show median; whiskers show P25–P75 range · N = 8,791 · Apr 2025–Jun 2026 · Source: HomeBuddy lead data
In this dataset, converting from a tub is not cheaper than converting from an existing shower — median prices for both paths sit within about $220 of each other (roughly 1%). Project type alone does not appear to be a meaningful price driver.
At the national level this near-parity is real, but it isn't uniform across states: within Texas alone (n=1,001), the same comparison shows a statistically reliable $896 gap (shower-to-shower higher, roughly 5.6% of the median). Other states show gaps of comparable size in both directions. The national figure is better read as an average of offsetting regional effects than as evidence that project type never matters.
Cost by Property Type
Segmenting by property type shows the same pattern: price is remarkably stable regardless of where the shower is being installed.
| Property Type | N | Median | P25 | P75 | Reliability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| House | 7,884 | $15,906 | $13,500 | $18,795 | Reliable |
| Apartment | 603 | $15,915 | $13,274 | $18,628 | Reliable |
| Mobile / manufactured | 307 | $15,458 | $13,156 | $18,808 | Reliable |
| Other | 86 | $15,779 | $13,100 | $18,456 | Directional (n=86) |
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Bars show median; whiskers show P25–P75 range · Apr 2025–Jun 2026 · Source: HomeBuddy lead data
In this dataset, median price does not vary meaningfully by property type — the full spread across house, apartment, and mobile/manufactured homes is under 3%. We're not treating this as evidence of a specific driver; it simply indicates that property type, on its own, does not associate with a materially different price in this sample. (Property type was recorded as "commercial" in 3 records — too few to report as a finding.)
Geographic Cost Variation
Location is the strongest associative signal in this dataset. Among the 26 states with at least 100 project requests, median project price ranges from $13,978 in Arizona to $18,900 in Mississippi — a gap of nearly $5,000, or roughly 35%, between the lowest- and highest-median states.
This is presented as a table rather than a map: HomeBuddy's data is not dense enough at the metro (MSA) level to support the precision a choropleth map would imply, so state-level medians are the right resolution for this dataset.
| State | N | Median | P25 | P75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama (AL) | 467 | $14,102 | $11,992 | $16,500 |
| Illinois (IL) | 361 | $14,225 | $11,600 | $17,500 |
| Pennsylvania (PA) | 275 | $14,324 | $12,844 | $16,630 |
| Minnesota (MN) | 133 | $14,584 | $12,500 | $17,200 |
| New York (NY) | 324 | $14,908 | $12,373 | $18,322 |
| Iowa (IA) | 154 | $15,118 | $12,500 | $18,542 |
| Ohio (OH) | 434 | $15,258 | $12,930 | $17,298 |
| Missouri (MO) | 249 | $15,342 | $12,696 | $17,348 |
| Florida (FL) | 473 | $15,411 | $12,882 | $18,454 |
| Colorado (CO) | 155 | $15,452 | $12,336 | $19,362 |
| California (CA) | 491 | $15,494 | $13,290 | $19,099 |
| Indiana (IN) | 233 | $15,569 | $12,991 | $18,312 |
| Kentucky (KY) | 176 | $15,848 | $13,988 | $18,791 |
| Georgia (GA) | 363 | $15,877 | $13,972 | $18,920 |
| North Carolina (NC) | 433 | $15,921 | $13,721 | $18,800 |
| Virginia (VA) | 150 | $16,162 | $13,784 | $18,626 |
| Arkansas (AR) | 194 | $16,332 | $14,271 | $18,958 |
| Tennessee (TN) | 265 | $16,351 | $13,942 | $19,351 |
| Michigan (MI) | 367 | $16,400 | $14,948 | $18,422 |
| Texas (TX) | 1,062 | $16,528 | $14,418 | $19,405 |
| South Carolina (SC) | 263 | $16,832 | $14,376 | $19,625 |
| Kansas (KS) | 152 | $17,342 | $15,000 | $19,806 |
| Louisiana (LA) | 281 | $17,800 | $16,125 | $19,784 |
| Oklahoma (OK) | 193 | $17,991 | $15,591 | $20,955 |
| Mississippi (MS) | 122 | $18,900 | $16,114 | $21,380 |
Sorted ascending by median price · States with n ≥ 100 only (26 of 49 states represented) · Apr 2025–Jun 2026 · Source: HomeBuddy lead data
These differences are associative, not causal: they reflect broad regional variation in labor costs, material costs, and local market conditions rather than any single explanatory factor, and this report does not claim to know why any individual state sits where it does in the ranking.
Methodology
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Data source | HomeBuddy lead request database |
| Vertical | Walk-In Showers |
| Records analyzed | 9,171 project requests |
| Period | April 2025 – June 2026 |
| Price source | Homeowner-reported project budget/estimate, not a contractor invoice or completed-sale amount) |
| Outlier removal | Records priced above $35,407 were excluded (226 records, 2.46% of the dataset). Upper fence = P75 + 3×IQR of the raw dataset ($19,000 + 3×$5,469). |
| Geographic coverage | 49 U.S. states represented; state-level findings reported only where n ≥ 100 (26 states) |
| Reliability threshold | Segments with n = 30–99 are labeled directional; segments with n < 30 are treated as hypotheses only and excluded from findings |
Limitations
- Data reflects project requests submitted through HomeBuddy's lead form, not completed project invoices or contractor-verified final costs.
- Prices represent homeowner-reported budgets/estimates at the time of request, not final paid amounts.
- The sample may not be nationally representative; state coverage is uneven (Texas alone accounts for over 1,000 requests, while several states fall below the n=100 reporting threshold and are excluded from the geographic analysis).
- Location was missing for 257 records (2.8% of the dataset); these are excluded from the geographic analysis but included in all other statistics.
- "Not sure" or equivalent responses stayed below the 30% content-gap threshold for every field reviewed for this report (highest: glass preference, at roughly 19% of answered responses), so no field is flagged as a standalone uncertainty finding in this release.
- Segments with n = 30–99 (e.g., "Other" property type, n=86) are labeled directional; segments with n < 30 (e.g., "commercial" property type, n=3) were excluded from findings entirely.
- The mobile/manufactured home segment (n=307) should be read with extra caution: third-party cost guides for mobile home bathroom remodels typically cite $8,000–$13,000 for a mid-range tub-to-shower conversion — well below this segment's $15,458 median here. This likely reflects who reaches HomeBuddy's lead form (homeowners already pursuing a full professional install) rather than the broader mobile home remodel market, which includes lower-cost and DIY projects this dataset would not capture.
- Findings describe associations observed in this dataset and should not be read as causal claims — this applies in particular to the geographic findings, which reflect regional market variation rather than a single identified cause.
- Safety features, current shower/tub condition, space constraints, and homeowner motivations were reviewed during the data audit but are intentionally out of scope for this Cost Index; they will be covered in forthcoming Cost Drivers and Homeowner Motivations reports.
