Buyers have quietly stopped ranking homes by size. Square footage still appears in every listing, but it has slid down the list of what actually drives a decision.
What has moved up
Layout and flow, meaning whether the space works rather than how much of it there is. Natural light, which no renovation adds cheaply. Storage that is genuinely usable. Outdoor space that functions as another room. Sound separation, which matters more now that many households work from home.
Utility beats volume. A well-organized smaller home routinely outperforms a larger one with wasted circulation and awkward rooms.
What this means for pricing
Two homes with matching square footage can sit in different price brackets because one is usable and the other is merely large. Comparable sales that adjust only for size miss this entirely, which is why a purely automated valuation so often lands wide of the mark.
For sellers
If your home has the qualities buyers now weight most, market those explicitly. Leading with square footage in a market that has stopped buying on square footage is leaving money on the table.
Read the full breakdown on HouseCashers.com