MARKET UPDATES
What is price per square foot?
By Steve Lockhart
The short answer
Take what a home sold for, divide it by its heated square footage, and you get price per square foot. It lets you compare a 1,200 square foot home and a 2,400 square foot home on something closer to a level playing field.
Full answer
Take what a home sold for, divide it by its heated square footage, and you get price per square foot. It lets you compare a 1,200 square foot home and a 2,400 square foot home on something closer to a level playing field. As a first screening tool, it is genuinely useful.
Where it gets dangerous is treating it as a precise measure. A home with a large lot, a remodeled kitchen, a pool, or a view sells for more per square foot than the number alone explains. Smaller homes also tend to show a higher price per square foot than larger ones, because the land and the fixed costs are spread over less space. Two pairs of homes can have the same square footage and very different values.
Agents and appraisers use it as one lens among several, alongside age, condition, lot size, upgrades, and the recent sale prices of specific comparable homes. A home is not a stack of squares; it is a specific property in a specific neighborhood.
When you see price per square foot quoted in a market report, it is usually a summary across many sales, which averages all those differences away. Use it to sense direction, then value the actual property. For your own home or a home you want to buy, comparable sales will tell you far more than a per foot number.
A note from Steve: market conditions change every month, and numbers quoted anywhere can go stale quickly. The guidance on this page is meant to stay true across markets. For the latest Southern Nevada figures, check the Market Updates page or ask me directly, and I will read the current data through your situation.
Go a little deeper
Frequently asked
Questions people often follow up on
Why is price per square foot higher for smaller homes?
Because land, permits, and basic construction cost about the same regardless of a home's size, and that fixed cost spreads over less square footage in a smaller home. So a small home often shows a higher price per square foot without being overpriced relative to its size.
Should I use price per square foot to negotiate?
Use it as context, not as the argument. A negotiator who anchors on a per foot number can miss the reasons a specific home is worth more or less than the average, like condition, upgrades, or a premium lot. The strongest negotiations are built on the right comps, not the average.
The Lockhart Method
The Lockhart Method
Your Home | My Strategy | Proven Results
My strategy: we use price per square foot to screen quickly, then ignore it once we start comparing real homes. Comps, condition, location, and price level matter far more to the value of a specific house than a per foot average.
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