What’s My Home Worth? Part 1 of 5
April 8, 2010 by Stef Lukas · Leave a Comment
Making Sense of Real Estate Pricing
Part 1 of 5
How does Square Footage Affect the Value of My Home?
Well, the most important thing to keep in mind is that a 2,000 square foot home on a comparable lot may not be worth twice as much as a 1,000 square foot one. Different floor plans offer different amounts of functional utility.
The fact that you have a 450 square foot master bedroom doesn’t mean that it’s worth dramatically more than a 300 square foot one.
It comes down to the questions:
1. What are you going to do with the space beyond a certain size? and
2. How much more value would it actually add?
A bonus room is another example of square footage that doesn’t have the same value as it would have if it was incorporated into the main floor footprint of the home like a family room is. For example, a 300 square foot bonus room built above a garage doesn’t provide any additional square footage in the basement of the home.
So, when you’re calculating square footage that involves a bonus room, you have to look at it differently. Overall, the difference in square footage from one property to the next is adjusted on a depreciated cost of construction. This value drops in accordance with the age of the home.
