Home Values & Pricing
How much is my house worth per square foot?
By Steve Lockhart
The short answer
Homeowners like price per square foot because it turns a house into one number: divide the sale price by the livable square footage and a comparable. It is useful for a broad first screen and a quick sanity check, and it becomes the wrong tool the moment you start averaging a whole city.
Full answer
Homeowners like price per square foot because it turns a house into one number: divide the sale price by the livable square footage and a comparable. It is useful for a broad first screen and a quick sanity check, and it becomes the wrong tool the moment you start averaging a whole city.
In Las Vegas, the per foot figure differs enormously between a newer master planned, an established neighborhood, and a luxury view. A Valley wide number says little about your address. Even inside one community, per foot numbers skew by home size, floor of the house, story count, lots, and extras.
Why it misleads: smaller homes often command a higher rate per foot than larger homes; second stories build for less and sell for slower; and the lot, view, pool, and condition arrive in dollars that foot averages simply do not see. Two same sized homes from the same year can close thousands apart because of the place and the touch inside.
Why it still helps: inside a tight set of true comps, sold months, the same community, the per foot band is a legitimate indicator, and your home should fall within it. That is exactly how agents and appraisers use it, one adjustment among several, never the conclusion.
The formula is simple: find a home that is genuinely like yours, confirm its livable square feet, then divide. Note the differences and the adjustment story behind each number. The answer to act on comes from a CMA, not from a website multiplying an area average by your size and calling it done.
Go a little deeper
Frequently asked
Questions homeowners often follow up on
Where can I find the rate for my home?
Online valuation sites and county records show the last sale price and the square footage, some show a per foot figure directly. Their number is only a pointer. The useful number is the rate spread across the recently sold homes that genuinely resemble yours.
Why does my neighbor have a much higher rate?
The homes are probably not truly comparable: different size, floor count, builder, era, condition, view, or lot. Once you isolate true similarities the per foot figures tighten. A wide gap usually means the comparison set is too wide.
My home has a big lot and a view. Does per foot work?
Rarely. When land, views, and custom building dominate, foot averages point the wrong way. Price with whole comps first, then add the land and the view premium. A street average applied to a standout property almost always understates the real number.
The Lockhart Method
The Lockhart Method
Your Home | My Strategy | Proven Results
My strategy: use per foot as a mirror and then put the professional lens on top. I will show you the rate band across your real comps, explain what it hides, and build the final figure from whole home comparisons where you see every adjustment. The number you keep survives the second opinion.
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