Price Per Square Foot – The New Metric?

A couple weeks ago after posting my monthly median sold price report, one of our readers, Josh, asked wouldn’t price per square foot be a better metric to track rather than median price.  Josh’s rationale was that the current lack of available credit to enable a purchase of higher price homes was creating an anomaly and consequently depressing median prices as a whole. 

Whether one concurs with Josh’s reasoning or not, I like his idea of tracking median price per square foot.  In fact, I have posted just such data in the past; however, the last time was back in May of this year.  So, Josh’s question has prompted me to update my table (see below).

Not surprisingly, median sold price-per-square-foot values have plummeted in recent months.  And although all November sales have not yet been recorded, clearly the price per square foot for homes in Reno and Sparks is now below $130/sq.ft.  In fact, prices have now returned to pre-2004 values.  [Note: I tried to pull data for 2003, unfortunately prior to 2004 our Sold price-per-square-foot data gets very thin.  For example, although there were 509 residential properties sold in December 2003, only 36 of these listings contained a sold price-per-square-foot value.  So January 2004 is as far back as I can go for sold $/sq.ft. data on our MLS.]

Thanks for the question, Josh.

 

Median Sold Price Per Square Foot

month – year

$/sq.ft.

units sold

November 2008*

$126.78*

135*

October 2008

$130.06

400

September 2008

$135.44

400

August 2008

$140.26

378

July 2008

$143.75

438

June 2008

$146.30

413

May 2008

$149.96

360

April 2008

$152.35

358

March 2008

$148.96

264

February 2008

$154.29

233

January 2008

$170.23

204

December 2007

$165.01

266

November 2007

$166.93

252

October 2007

$168.08

285

September 2007

$173.38

301

August 2007

$177.08

389

July 2007

$184.21

386

June 2007

$181.94

397

May 2007

$189.81

464

April 2007

$193.42

423

March 2007

$190.18

404

February 2007

$188.22

348

January 2007

$200.41

352

December 2006

$194.42

375

November 2006

$189.06

355

October 2006

$193.42

457

September 2006

$192.17

444

August 2006

$201.49

436

July 2006

$204.32

454

June 2006

$207.87

523

May 2006

$212.59

470

April 2006

$205.77

458

March 2006

$207.45

494

February 2006

$211.54

360

January 2006

$212.43

353

December 2005

$209.81

421

November 2005

$209.77

502

October 2005

$214.29

608

September 2005

$213.79

661

August 2005

$212.26

747

July 2005

$213.49

724

June 2005

$209.26

847

May 2005

$204.89

775

April 2005

$199.81

705

March 2005

$193.35

719

February 2005

$189.51

453

January 2005

$187.38

412

December 2004

$184.24

549

November 2004

$182.93

440

October 2004

$181.81

572

September 2004

$178.73

765

August 2004

$174.03

662

July 2004

$173.14

674

June 2004

$164.35

655

May 2004

$163.32

600

April 2004

$153.25

635

March 2004

$146.96

600

February 2004

$133.85

441

January 2004

$129.09

432

 * The data for November 2008 is incomplete.

Note:  Data includes all residential sales reported to the Northern Nevada Regional MLS database (NNRMLS) for MLS area #100 – Reno-Sparks.  Data does not include FSBOs (sales made "By Owner") or new home sales that do not participate in the MLS system.  Data courtesy of Northern Nevada Regional MLS database (NNRMLS) – November 2008.


7 comments

  1. Sean

    great information Guy. I was asking about this as well. I expect to see under $100/sqft median by the end of next year, maybe even $80

  2. billddrummer

    Great data, Guy.

    The challenge will be for homebuilders to attempt to build new houses for $100/s.f. Can’t be done.

    So, look for a bunch of builders to start cutting back even more sharply as the existing home market crashes around them.

  3. Sully

    Stead, Cold Springs, Lemmon Valley etc., are now under 100/ft – some at 70.

    I see these areas dropping even further; mainly because of the distance from center of town.

    Otherwise the areas with south in their names and Hidden Valley are still asking way above 130/ft.

    Sparks is about the only area I have run into averaging around 130ish. And I have been looking everywhere except in the river!

  4. Josh

    Guy,

    Thanks for the post! I think it is interesting that the price per square foot has dropped so much over the past year. That really tells the story.

    This will be a fun figure to track over coming years! Thanks Guy.

    BTW I’ve wanted to go to the RRB bar get togethers but missed the past two. Any date on the horizon for your next shindig?

    Thanks,

    Josh

  5. Guy Johnson

    Josh, no plans at the moment for the next meet-up. We’ll post it when we make plans.

  6. jeff

    Guy,

    Thank you. As others have already stated, this really should be a key metric to watch.

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