Square Foot Price Calculator
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Price Per Square Foot by US City

Median price per square foot for major US metros in 2026. Compare cities and calculate any home against the local benchmark.

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Explore median price per square foot across major US metropolitan areas.

Understanding City Benchmarks

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Price per square foot varies drastically depending on where you are looking. While the US median is around $220/sqft, highly desirable coastal tech hubs like San Francisco and San Jose can easily exceed $1,000/sqft.

How to use these numbers

These figures represent the median listing price per square foot across the entire metropolitan area. Use these as a baseline to determine whether a specific listing is priced above or below the local market rate.

Remember that downtown condos and luxury properties will typically have a higher price per square foot compared to suburban single-family homes in the same metropolitan region.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions about city pricing benchmarks

Price per square foot is a benchmark metric calculated by dividing a property's total sale or listing price by its total livable square footage. It helps to quickly gauge how a property's value compares to others in the same city or neighborhood.

Generally, only finished interior spaces like bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, and kitchens are included. Unfinished basements, attics, garages, patios, and decks are almost always excluded from official square footage calculations.

It is a useful starting point, but it should not be the only metric you use. It ignores critical factors like location desirability, property condition, lot size, school districts, and unique architectural features that significantly drive up a home's value.

Smaller homes often have a higher price per square foot due to economies of scale. The most expensive rooms to build are kitchens and bathrooms. In a smaller home, these high-cost areas make up a larger percentage of the total footprint compared to a massive house.

Real estate professionals prefer using the median rather than the average. The median represents the exact middle point of all data, which prevents the final number from being skewed by a few ultra-luxury mansions or extremely distressed properties.