What Is a Good Price Per Square Foot in Your City 2026 Data by Metro
Patrick Bushe
April 7, 2025 · 5 min read
There's no single good price per square foot. A figure that's a bargain in San Francisco would be expensive in much of the Midwest, and even within one city prices can double from one neighborhood to the next. Rather than a table that's out of date within weeks, here's where to find current numbers for your area and how to use them.
Where to find current figures for your metro
- Redfin Data Center: free downloadable data on median sale price per square foot by metro, city and ZIP code, updated regularly.
- Zillow Research: home value and market data by region.
- Realtor.com research: monthly market reports with listing price per square foot by metro.
- Local agents and MLS reports: often the most detailed, down to the neighborhood.
Why the metro average isn't enough
A metro figure mixes downtown condos with suburban houses and rural land. To judge one home, narrow it down:
- Same neighborhood or school district.
- Same type of home: condo, townhouse or detached house.
- Similar size: smaller homes usually cost more per square foot.
- Similar age and condition.
- Recent sales, ideally from the last six months, not current asking prices.
How to judge a listing
- Divide the asking price by the finished living area.
- Find recent sales of similar homes nearby and work out their figures.
- Compare. Noticeably higher may mean overpriced, or a better lot, view or renovation. Noticeably lower may mean a deal, or a problem.
- Look for the reason behind any big difference before making an offer.
A worked example
Say a 1,600-square-foot house is listed at $560,000, or $350 a square foot. Three similar houses on nearby streets sold in the last four months for $320, $335 and $340 a square foot. The listing is a little above recent sales. If it has a renovated kitchen and the others didn't, that may explain it; if not, there's room to negotiate.
What the number doesn't capture
Lot size, views, parking, a new roof, school quality and noise all affect value without changing square footage. Treat price per square foot as a starting point for questions, not a verdict.
See it on every listing
Zillow Price/SqFt adds a price-per-square-foot badge to each listing card on Zillow, color-coded so you can spot outliers while browsing. Its color bands are fixed national ranges, so compare against your local figures rather than the colors alone.
