The most common category in Bay Area reports is electrical
Electrical items turn up in almost every Bay Area inspection report we read, level with safety items as the most common category. Here is what they are and what they typically cost.
Each bar is one of the most common electrical issues, sized by the share of the 22 Bay Area reports that flag it; the longest, electrical panel / breaker issues, is in 41%.
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Open almost any Bay Area inspection report and somewhere in it is a line about the electrical system.
Insite files each finding under a category. Electrical holds what the inspector wrote about the panel, the breakers, the wiring and the outlets; smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are counted with safety items instead. Of the 22 Bay Area reports we read, 20 have at least one electrical finding (91%). That ties Safety Issues for the most common category in the study.
One note on the numbers that follow. Every issue share is out of all 22 reports, not out of the 20 with an electrical finding, so an issue flagged in 9 reports reads as 41%.
Across the 20 homes the electrical findings add up to 81 items, and every one of them carries an estimate. Affected homes have a median of 3 electrical items and a median electrical estimate of $1,230.
Common is not the same as costly. Electrical is the single costliest category in 2 of 22 homes. Among the eight most common categories in the study, only Gas Systems has a lower median estimate per affected home ($600).
Which electrical items come up
The chart counts the reports that flag each electrical issue at least once. A report can flag several, so the bars add up to more than 91%.
Electrical panel / breaker issues lead the list, in 9 of 22 reports (41%). Aluminum service wires at the panel follows, in 7. No electrical issue appears in more than half the reports. The least common shown, cloth or knob-and-tube wiring, is in one report.
The bars are the issues Insite can name from a finding’s title. A finding that matches none of them still counts toward the 20 homes above, but not toward any bar.
At the panel
The most common electrical issue sits at the panel. The callout groups the panel items with aluminum service wires at the panel, the most common wiring item on the list.
Typical is the median estimate for one finding of that kind, across the reports that flag it.
At the panel typical estimates are a few hundred dollars or less: $324 for electrical panel / breaker issues and $151 for panel cover, dead front or screws. Aluminum service wires are flagged in 7 reports, with a typical estimate of $377 per finding. What that means for a given house depends on what the inspector says should happen next.
Outlets and the priciest items
GFCI and grounding are the recurring outlet items. Each turns up in 5 of 22 reports, with typical estimates of $404 for outlets lacking GFCI protection and $531 for ungrounded or open-ground outlets, both under half the median electrical estimate of $1,230.
AFCI protection missing carries the largest typical estimate of the named items, $886, and appears in 4 reports. Cloth or knob-and-tube wiring is in one report.
The range per home
Add up each affected home’s electrical items and the totals vary. The middle half of affected homes fall between $447 and $2,662.
Each home’s figure is the sum of its priced electrical findings.
The lowest affected home’s electrical total is $166. The highest, $9,869, is about 8 times the median, which is why we quote the median and the middle half rather than an average.
Does the age of the house change it?
We split the 22 reports by when the house was built and by its price, one at a time. The price is the asking price, or the sale price for the 2 homes where only that was published. A band is shown only when it holds at least three homes, and a home missing a fact is left out of that split.
Nearly every home in each age band has an electrical finding: all 5 homes built before 1960, all 8 built 1960–1979 and 4 of the 5 built 1980 or later.
Each band counts only its homes with an electrical finding; the median is over the affected homes in each band.
There is no straight line from age to the electrical estimate: the highest median is $2,200 (Built before 1960), the lowest $500 (Built 1960–1979).
| Age band | Aluminum service wires |
|---|---|
| Built before 1960 5 homes | – |
| Built 1960–1979 8 homes | 2 of 8 |
| Built 1980 or later 5 homes | 2 of 5 |
Each count is out of the homes in that age band, not out of all 22 reports. A dash marks a band where fewer than two homes have the item.
No age band has ungrounded outlets flagged in more than one home.
Each band counts only its homes with an electrical finding; the median is over the affected homes in each band.
There is no straight line from price to the electrical estimate: the highest median is $4,300 (Under $2M), the lowest $300 ($4M and up).
Treat gaps between bands as rough. Each band holds a handful of homes, between 4 and 8; prices follow region, and most of a region’s reports come from one inspection firm.
Three things to do with your own report
If your report has electrical findings, start here.
- Find the panel items first. Electrical panel / breaker issues are the most common electrical issue here, in 41% of reports.
- Check whether aluminum service wires at the panel or cloth wiring are noted, and what the inspector recommends. Aluminum service wires are in 7 of 22 reports here; cloth or knob-and-tube in 1.
- Check which outlets are flagged for GFCI or grounding, and what the inspector recommends. Their typical estimates are $404 and $531.
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