Asking Price per Square Foot
The median asking price per square foot on active for-sale listings in a market, and how that price is moving.
On this page
The median asking price per square foot on active for-sale listings in a market, in dollars.
realtor.com defines it as "the median listing price per square foot in a given market during the specified month" (Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price per Square Feet in the United States). Each listing's asking price is divided by its size before the median is taken, so the figure describes the price of space rather than the price of a typical home.
Asking price moves when the homes currently for sale get bigger or smaller, even if the price of any given square foot hasn't changed. This family removes that effect: a market where the same size of home now asks more per square foot is a market getting more expensive on a like-for-like basis, not one that simply started listing larger or smaller homes.
Metrics in this family#
Asking price per square foot
The current median asking price per square foot, reported as a trailing twelve-month figure so that a single volatile month does not dominate the reading.
Asking price per square foot change, 1-year
Change in the median asking price per square foot over the past year, as a percentage.
Asking price per square foot change, 3-year
Change in the median asking price per square foot over the past three years, as a percentage.
Asking price per square foot change, 5-year
Change in the median asking price per square foot over the past five years, as a percentage.
Asking price per square foot vs seasonal norm
The current median asking price per square foot compared against this market's own typical level at the same point in prior years, so a reading is judged against the season it falls in rather than against a flat year-round baseline.
Considerations#
This is a list price, not a sale price. No transaction has occurred, and the figure says nothing about lot size, condition, or finish quality — only about the relationship between asking price and interior square footage on that month's active listings.
It is nominal. The dollar figure is not adjusted for general price inflation, so a multi-year change includes inflation alongside any change specific to housing.
Smaller geographies rest on fewer listings. Many ZIP codes carry a modest number of active listings in any given month, so at ZIP grain the median can move on a handful of sellers' decisions. County and metro readings pool more listings and are steadier.
Census tracts have no realtor.com listings of their own. realtor.com publishes at ZIP code, county and metro; a tract's reading is assembled from the ZIP codes that overlap it. A tract split across ZIP codes with different price levels takes a blended value that is smoother than any single ZIP code within it.
Puerto Rico is absent. realtor.com publishes no Puerto Rico rows at any geography. Connecticut is already restated onto its current planning regions rather than its former counties.
Vendor methodology changed in 2022. realtor.com revised how it detects time-on-market and handles duplicate listings, and separately refined its handling of missing square footage; realtor.com states that its published historical series now applies the revised methodology consistently, so the loaded history does not carry a break at those points.
References#
- 1Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price per Square Feet in the United Stateshttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDLISPRIPERSQUFEEUS