Article — Price Per Square Foot Calculator
Price Per Square Foot: how to evaluate real estate and renovation costs
Price per square foot equals the total price divided by the area in square feet. A $400,000 home at 2,000 ft² works out to $200/ft². The metric lets you compare houses, flooring jobs, paint quotes, and office leases on equal footing regardless of size. US new-home construction averaged $154.70/ft² in 2023 (Census Bureau); existing listings ran around $226/ft² in 2025 (FRED).
The calculator at the top of this page handles single listings and side-by-side comparisons. It also toggles between square feet and square meters — an important option when European data uses m² and the rest of the math is in dollars. The article below covers what counts as a fair price per square foot, where the largest regional gaps are, and where the metric falls apart.
What is price per square foot?
Price per square foot, abbreviated PPSF or sometimes $/SF, is a unit-cost ratio. It tells you what one square foot of habitable or finished space costs, after dividing the total price by the total area. The metric is used everywhere a price applies to an area: real estate, flooring installations, painting, commercial leases, and construction quotes.
The advantage of PPSF is comparability. A $300,000 home at 1,500 ft² and a $400,000 home at 2,000 ft² both work out to $200/ft². They are priced the same per unit of space, even though the listed totals differ. Without normalizing for size, the larger home looks more expensive when it might actually be the better value.
The National Association of Realtors does not endorse price per square foot as a sole valuation tool. Its 2023 buyer-agent guidance flags PPSF as “useful for screening but unreliable as a price predictor.” The reason: location, condition, lot size, and finish quality drive far more variance than raw size.
The price-per-square-foot formula
Divide the total price by the square footage. That is the entire formula. Rearrange to solve for area or for total price as needed.
Total Price ÷ ft² = Price/ft²Price/ft² × ft² = Total PriceTotal Price ÷ Price/ft² = ft²Price/ft² × 10.7639 = Price/m²When comparing listings, the lower price per square foot is the better unit price for space — not necessarily the better property. A 1,400 ft² condo at $280,000 ($200/ft²) and a 1,800 ft² condo at $396,000 ($220/ft²) differ by $20/ft². At that small a gap, condition and location easily outweigh the per-foot edge.
US price per square foot by region
The Census Bureau publishes regional median PPSF for new single-family homes. The 2023 figures show a national median of $154.70/ft² with the Northeast highest and the South lowest. Regional spreads have widened since 2015 as urban-coastal demand outran rural supply.
Existing-home listings — the resale market — track higher per foot because they cluster in established neighborhoods with proven location value. FRED data put the US median listing PPSF at roughly $226/ft² in early 2025, about 46% above the new-construction median of $155/ft². The gap is larger in supply-constrained metros.
Price per square foot in major metros
The spread between US metros is one of the widest in the world. Manhattan listings routinely exceed $1,500/ft²; Detroit and Cleveland sit near $80–$90/ft². That is an 18× difference, larger than the gap between Tokyo and Osaka or between London and Manchester.
- Manhattan, NY = $1,500+/ft² (highest US metro)
- San Francisco, CA = ~$1,100/ft²
- Boston, MA = ~$650/ft²
- Los Angeles, CA = ~$600/ft²
- Seattle, WA = ~$450/ft²
- Denver, CO = ~$300/ft²
- Atlanta, GA = ~$220/ft²
- Detroit, MI = ~$80/ft² (lowest among major US metros)
The figures above are approximate medians as of 2024–25, based on aggregated MLS data. Penthouse and luxury sales pull averages up; older inventory pulls them down. Use them to set expectations, not to make offers.
When comparing a target listing against a metro average, restrict the average to the same property type. A condo at $400/ft² is not directly comparable to a detached house at $400/ft² in the same city — the underlying cost structures differ. Detached homes include land value; condos largely do not.
Flooring and painting cost per square foot
Flooring contractors quote in $/ft² because the price scales linearly with area. Material plus standard installation runs $3–$8/ft² for laminate, $3–$9/ft² for vinyl plank, $5–$15/ft² for ceramic tile, $8–$25/ft² for solid hardwood, and $10–$30/ft² for natural stone. The high end of each range covers complex layouts, premium grades, and stair installations.
Painting follows a similar pattern. Interior repainting averages $2–$6/ft² of floor area; exterior runs $3–$9/ft². A standard 2,000 ft² interior repaint costs $4,000–$12,000. The variation comes from prep work: patching, sanding, priming, and protecting fixtures account for most of the labor on a wall surface that is otherwise simple to coat.
Some flooring quotes price only the material per square foot, with installation, underlayment, baseboard, and old-floor removal added separately. Always confirm whether a quote is “materials only,” “materials and labor,” or “turnkey including demo.” The end-to-end cost can be 30–60% above the headline number.
Construction cost per square foot
New-construction cost per square foot ranges from $100/ft² for production-builder tract homes in low-cost markets to $400+/ft² for custom builds in expensive metros. The 2023 Census Bureau median for new single-family construction was $154.70/ft², which represents builder-grade homes outside the highest-cost regions.
The number excludes land. Buyers and builders typically separate the lot cost from the structure cost because lot prices vary far more than construction costs do. A $700,000 turnkey new build might break down as $300,000 for the lot and $400,000 for the structure (2,000 ft² × $200/ft²), with the lot price entirely set by location.
Price per ft² vs. price per m²
US, UK, and a few Caribbean markets quote real estate in square feet. The rest of the world uses square meters. The conversion is exact: one square meter equals 10.7639 square feet, derived from the international foot (0.3048 m, defined 1959). To compare a $200/ft² US listing with a €2,000/m² Berlin listing, you need both unit and currency conversion.
Many international buyers misjudge prices by skipping the conversion. A Paris apartment at €9,000/m² sounds reasonable until you convert to $/ft²: roughly $900/ft² at current exchange rates — comparable to San Francisco. A Madrid apartment at €2,500/m² converts to about $250/ft², closer to Atlanta. The headline currency price hides the comparison.
Common price-per-square-foot mistakes
PPSF is a screening tool, not a valuation. Treating it as the final word on price leads to several recurring errors.
- Comparing across property types: condos, townhouses, and detached homes have different cost structures even in the same neighborhood. Compare like with like.
- Ignoring lot size: a $500,000 home on a half-acre lot and the same home on an eighth-acre lot have very different values. PPSF treats them identically.
- Gross vs. net area: builders sometimes quote gross floor area, which includes walls and stairwells. Net usable area is 10–20% smaller.
- Mixing ft² and m²: 1 m² = 10.7639 ft². A 10× error in conversion is common when international buyers and sellers cross-shop.
- Old data: PPSF in fast-moving metros can shift 10% in a single year. Use data less than six months old for active comparisons.
- Hidden costs in renovation quotes: contractor $/ft² figures sometimes exclude prep, demolition, or finishing. Always confirm scope.