What is a Home’s Square Footage?

A home’s square footage can be confusing because it is broken down into three different numbers: the living area, the adjusted area, and the total area. The living area is the actual air conditioned inside area of a house and is the smallest number of the three. Adjusted square footage is larger because it takes into account spaces that are utilized but not necessarily air conditioned, so it adds half of the size of the garage and one third of the size of covered patios to the living area. Total area is the largest of the numbers because it includes the full amount of all covered square footage. Take a look at the architect’s measurement below of 12440 Moss Ranch Road for more clarification.

The spaces shaded by tight dots labeled “conditioned space” in the key are the actual living area, which measures 5,546 square feet. The square area on the bottom right of the larger portion of the sketch that says 541 is the garage, and if you look at the key, the number on the right shows its adjustment to 271 square feet. The remaining spaces that are covered in diagonal stripes are the covered porches and balconies. Their area totals 1980 square feet, one third of which is counted towards the adjusted square footage, bringing that to 659. When you total these numbers you will see that the adjusted square footage of this fabulous home is 6,476.

When a realtor gives you the square footage of a house, chances are that he or she is referring to the adjusted square footage because that takes into account the measurements of all of the areas that are actually used, while not giving full credit to the un-air conditioned areas. However, because most houses have three sets of numbers floating around, the issue can often become confused. For example, the Miami MLS displays all three numbers, Realtor.com utilizes the actual square footage, while Zillow.com tends to show the adjusted, meaning that there is no consistency when a buyer starts their search online. EWM Realty International is actually working to change that and make real estate websites uniform, but in the meantime just give me a call and I can help you understand the facts!

If you are looking to buy or sell a home anywhere in Miami, please call me at 305-798-8685, or visit my website at: Luxury Miami Real Estate