Property Value per Square Foot Calculator

Price per square foot is the fastest way to compare two properties that are not the same size, and the number this page gives you:

Price per sq ft = Purchase Price / Total Area

A $350,000 house of 1,800 sq ft works out at $194.44 per sq ft. A $420,000 house of 2,400 sq ft is $175 per sq ft, so the more expensive house is the better value by the square foot, which is not obvious from the asking prices alone.

What counts as “area”, and why two listings can disagree by 20%

This is where the number goes wrong more often than the arithmetic ever does. Different sources measure differently:

• Gross Living Area (GLA) is what an appraiser uses. Finished, heated, above-grade space measured to the outside of the exterior walls.
• Finished basements do not count toward GLA in most US markets, no matter how nice they are. They get valued separately and at a discount, often a third to a half of above-grade rates.
• Garages, unheated porches, attics with low headroom are excluded.
• Tax records are frequently wrong. They are updated on assessment cycles and often predate a renovation or an addition.

So before comparing two price-per-square-foot figures, check that both came from the same definition. A house with a big finished basement can look expensive per square foot and be perfectly priced.

What the number does not tell you

Price per square foot ignores land, condition, layout, and location, and those routinely matter more than floor area. Two identical houses on the same street can differ 15% on lot and view alone. It also breaks down at the extremes: small homes almost always cost more per square foot than large ones, because a kitchen and a bathroom cost what they cost whether the house is 900 sq ft or 3,000.

Use it to compare like with like, in the same neighbourhood, in the same few months. Stretch it further than that and it stops meaning much.

Rough US bands, for orientation only

Rural areas commonly sit near $100 per sq ft, ordinary suburbs near $200, midsize cities near $300, expensive metros $500 and up, with prime urban markets well past $800. These move constantly and vary street by street, so treat them as a sanity check rather than a valuation.

For an actual valuation, an appraiser weights three to five recent comparable sales and adjusts each one for its differences from your property. That is a different method from this one, and a single price-per-square-foot figure is no substitute for it.