Is an apple or an orange a better value at 59 cents per pound? Impossible to answer you say? They aren't the same thing you point out. Depends which one you like better you speculate.
The same can be true for houses. Often home buyers want to know how much a house costs per square foot & then try to use that information as a way to compare.
But... what if House A is in a well maintained, conveniently located neighborhood where homes FLY off the market pretty much the day they are listed. House B is in a rundown neighborhood next to the freeway where average market time is 2 or 3 times as long as the overall time in town. Yes House B is a lower dollar per square foot price.....but may not be a better buy.
OK, so how about if both houses are in the same neighborhood, and all the houses in that neighborhood were built roughly the same time and are close to being the same size. Even the same builder built the entire neighborhood. Surely now dollars per square foot is a great way to compare value. Right?
Well, only if condition is really, really similar. If House A has had all new floor coverings & paint, plus newly updated kitchen & bathrooms versus House B which is a bank owned house that has missing kitchen appliances, stained & smelly carpeting, what looks suspiciously like water damage in the bathrooms, & holes punched strategically in various walls & interior doors....well, so much for thinking a similar dollars per square foot price would make ANY sense.
Statistics like price per square foot can only take you so far in analyzing what is - or is not - a great value in a house. You will likely do far better to work with an experienced, local real estate agent who can help you sort out the factors that truly make a house a great fit for your needs - and a great value too!
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