Longer answer: Sunken tubs are a lot of work and they are definitely more difficult to navigate...not something appropriate for older folks, I'd think. If you're interested in resale, I think it could be a problem. One other option: if you have room, elevate the floor in that section of the bathroom and create a little platform to create a sunken look without actually sinking it in the floor.

Had I but room enough and time, the tub I would install in a heartbeat in our own home is one I wrote about some time ago in a blog I titled Somewhere, because for me it really is somewhere in a distant land I’m destined to never visit. It’s too long to print out here, but there’s a link to it at the bottom of this if you’re interested. But I do believe that if I had the room for it in our home—and the necessary money for the purchase, this is an indoor pool/tub that I would install in a heartbeat.

What I most want in a bathroom is a place that is luxurious, that is comfortable, that is a retreat from the world. And to the extent that it is possible, I mean to achieve it for us. That said, though, ours are—and will remain—five by nine cracker boxes that simply do not permit something as luxurious as a sunken tub. But if it’s what you want, and what you can afford, I say, go for it. Because you only go around once.

In my locale getting a permit for a bath remodel is a grey area...most people don't do it. A friend of mine designed a bath with sunken tub for someone who insisted on it,-- he couldnt talk her out of it. She fell into it when she wasnt even taking a bath and ended up putting a railing around it like a swimming pool. (After she got home from the hospital). Not the look she was going for, originally.