Swapping grass for drought-tolerant plants won’t just save water. It could add tens of thousands of dollars to your home’s value.

Across Colorado, millions of gallons of treated drinking water are poured onto unused front yards and planting strips of bluegrass and fescue every summer. Water researchers have a name for this kind of turf: non-functional. And eliminating it has become one of the most promising tools in the state’s water conservation toolkit.

Municipal water use accounts for only about 7% of all water used statewide, but roughly 40% of that goes straight into the ground. Outdoor irrigation represents around 2.8% of all water used in Colorado. That might sound like a small slice, but researchers estimate there are about 100,000 acres of irrigated turf in the state, and around 26,000 of those acres are classified as non-functional.

Single-family detached homes in Colorado number about 1.3 million, and the majority of homes along the Front Range have some amount of turf out front. Many of those irrigation systems are getting old or are utilizing inefficient hose-fed sprinklers. Based on research publications, older residential sprinkler setups are typically only 40%–50% efficient, meaning nearly half the water applied never reaches plant roots. The EPA considers an irrigation system with less than 65% efficiency to be in need of attention or replacement.

Thoughtfully designed xeric, or low-water, landscapes can be dynamic, layered and full of color. Native plants and those adapted to the Intermountain West, like Rocky Mountain penstemon, three-leaf sumac, fern bush, red yucca and many others, provide habitat and food for pollinators and birds while needing a fraction of the water that bluegrass demands.

During the growing season, roughly mid-April through October, turf requires replacement of about 88% of what’s evaporating from the soil and transpiring from plants on any given day. This is about 33–37 inches, depending on your location. A well-chosen xeric landscape drops that figure to just 30%. Pair that with replacing a traditional sprinkler system with high-efficiency drip irrigation, which can reach 90% efficiency, and the water savings compound dramatically.

For a typical 1,000-square-foot front yard in the Denver Metro Area, the existing grass, watered with an older sprinkler system, uses roughly 39,000 gallons per year. Convert to xeric plants on drip irrigation, and that drops to about 7,500 gallons per year if installed and

managed correctly. That’s a reduction of 31,500 gallons annually from a single front yard of that size.

Using Front Range water provider Denver Water’s 2026 tiered water rates, those 31,500 saved gallons translate to about $170 per year in reduced water bills in Denver and $246 outside the city. This does not include recent tier 1 drought surcharges.

Conversion typically runs $5 to $10 per square foot, putting a 1,000-square-foot front yard between $5,000 and $10,000. If that sounds underwhelming relative to the cost of the project, you’re right to notice. On water savings alone, a homeowner might not break even for many years. But water bills aren’t the whole story.

Research published in landscape economics journals shows that well-designed, mature landscaping can increase home values by 5% to 12% compared to turfgrass. The biggest value drivers are design sophistication and plant size. A thoughtfully planted “Coloradoscape” – the term replacing xeriscape – can look extraordinary once established.

With the Front Range median home sale price sitting around $593,000 as of early 2026, that landscape premium translates to an estimated $29,650 to $71,160 in added home value. Even at the conservative end, a $5,000 investment in a well-designed front yard conversion could return almost six times its cost in property value, long before the water savings start accumulating.

New Coloradoscapes take time to mature, typically two to five years before they reach full glory. But the long-term picture is compelling: lower water bills, higher home value and a yard that supports local wildlife, rather than consuming resources.

Scott Curry is a Colorado State University assistant professor who teaches in the Landscape Design and Contracting program. He grew up working in his family-owned commercial landscape construction company and is a Licensed Landscape Architect, a Certified Irrigation Designer and a Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper.