Does a house NEED a bath tub anymore?

The trend in new houses is clear, luxury showers are becoming more popular. In new homes, we are seeing the traditional tub enclosure being replaced with step-in showers featuring beautiful tile work, multiple shower heads, and lovely mixes of textures and finishes in glass, tile, metal and stone.

That being said, many real estate professionals, myself included would caution someone from building or renovating a home with a plan to not have a tub at all. In fact; I've passionately defended this stance to someone close to me who is undergoing a renovation and wanted to save space in the ONLY bathroom by removing the tub and installing a stand-up shower instead. I also recently did a home evaluation where I advised the seller to replace a tub they had removed in their secondary bathroom to increase the appeal of their home to families.

Why? While a shower is the go-to for MOST people, in my experience families generally prefer to bathe small children in a tub.

Also, while I don't have time for it daily, a soak in the tub is a luxury I really appreciate and I cannot picture having a home without a tub. (Well, actually I can, I lived through a never-ending bathroom renovation that left me without a tub for over a year, and I HATED it.)

Now that I have a deep soaker tub with jets- I don't think I could live without one.

Even if a tub isn't part of your family's "must have" list- for resale value, an above grade tub is something I would highly suggest. Either in the master or main bathroom. It's hard to put a concrete number on the value having a bath(vs. a shower) in the home provides, but realistically it increases the market of people who will be interested in your home, which will generally make it sell faster and for more money.

Most listings simply indicate the number of fixtures (and a shower/tub combo vs stand up shower would look the same in our database) so it's tough to compare and find valid data to substantiate my claims in either case.

On that note, I am dying to know. Would you buy a house without a tub? What do you prefer? A shower or a bath?