Central AC cost: the median homeowner paid $6,500
That is the median across 2,242 central air conditioning system jobs reported to the 2023 American Housing Survey, for work finished from 2021 to 2023. Homeowners who hired a contractor paid a median of $6,900. Owners who did the work themselves paid a median of $5,000.
2,242 jobs
2,011 jobs
231 jobs
Cost by who did the work
| Jobs (n) | 10th pct | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | 90th pct | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All jobs | 2,242 | $2,000 | $4,000 | $6,500 | $9,500 | $14,000 |
| Hired contractor | 2,011 | $2,200 | $4,000 | $6,900 | $9,700 | $14,800 |
| Did it themselves | 231 | $800 | $2,000 | $5,000 | $8,000 | $11,000 |
Why this differs from cost guides
The survey category is "Added or replaced central air conditioning", which covers new systems as well as replacements. Only 231 of the 2,242 jobs (10 percent) were done by the owner, so the do-it-yourself range rests on fewer jobs and is rough.
Common questions
How much does a central air conditioning system cost?
In the 2023 American Housing Survey the median was $6,500 across 2,242 jobs finished from 2021 to 2023. Hired jobs had a median of $6,900 and do-it-yourself jobs $5,000.
What did the middle half of homeowners pay when they hired someone?
Half of hired jobs cost between $4,000 and $9,700. One in ten cost $2,200 or less and one in ten cost $14,800 or more.
Where do these figures come from?
From the project file of the 2023 American Housing Survey, run by the Census Bureau for HUD. Medians and percentiles are weighted to represent U.S. households.
Method
Records come from the AHS 2023 public use project file: improvement and repair jobs reported by households, with job type, whether the owner did the work, and the cost. Only jobs with a cost above zero are used. Percentiles are weighted with the survey household weight. As a check, the weighted median for all kitchen jobs reproduces the $8,000 figure Census publishes.
Caveats
- Self-reported. The American Housing Survey asks residents what they did and what it cost. Amounts are in the dollars of the year the job was done (2021 to 2023) and are not adjusted for inflation.
- Replacement rates in the American Housing Survey are a floor. Respondents list the projects they remember, and the Energy Information Administration's Residential Energy Consumption Survey implies replacement rates roughly double those the AHS shows.
- The survey data carry no stated license. OneFabHome treats them as U.S. federal government data and cites the source for every figure.
Sources
- American Housing Survey 2023 public use file, U.S. Census Bureau and HUD.