Measuring square footage to exterior walls?

Yes, this is the way it is done. Measurements from the outside wall to halfway through the wall of the unit next door. Exterior wall are usually no more than a foot thick. You will probably find some other surprises.

Interesting. Any specific surprises you care to share that we should be on the lookout for?

If true square square footage or "usable square footage" is something you are greatly concerned about you should arrange to have the apartment measured prior to entering into a purchase agreement.

You will find listings for both resales and new construction tend to inflate the square footage.

deucescracked:

I'm surprised that this methodology is shocking to you.

Any house, wherever it's built in the 'burbs or the city is advertised in terms of square footage by the lot space it occupies, walls and all. People/brokers don't measure the interior 'usable' square footage of a house - if the overall dimensions of the house happens to be a perfect rectangle that is 40 x 100, the house is advertised as being 4,000 square feet, not the 3,400 square feet of usable interior space the house contains.

malraux - you're the man.

the reason we have never paid much attention to the measurement aspect of things is because outside of manhattan a few hundred square feet difference on a house has no impact on price. In manhattan, where we are dealing with $1500/sq ft, it can make a huge difference. So we have become more picky and really its the first time we have looked into this.

It's one of those things you have to balance against so many others. For instance, a well laid out 675 sf (so called) 1 bedroom unit can be far more desirable than an 800 sf 1 bedroom unit that has wasted hallway/foyer space and a terrible floor plan. So raw square footage only means something in context of other factors.