How to use the price per front foot and acre land calculator
- Choose feet or meters for the lengths.
- Enter one lot per line: its name, price, frontage and depth.
- Read the price per square foot, per acre and per front foot, or per square meter and hectare.
- Check the sizes table, and compare the lots by unit price.
Formula
Area = frontage x depth
Acres = square feet / 43,560. Hectares = square meters / 10,000
Price per square foot = price / area. Price per acre = price / acres
Price per front foot = price / frontage
Lots are treated as rectangles. Irregular lots need their real area.
Two lots in feet
Lot A costs $60,000 and measures 100 by 150 feet, which is 15,000 square feet or 0.3444 of an acre. That is $4.00 a square foot, $174,240.00 an acre and $600.00 a front foot. Lot B costs $66,000 and measures 90 by 200 feet, or 18,000 square feet and 0.4132 of an acre.
Lot B costs $3.67 a square foot, $159,720.00 an acre and $733.33 a front foot, so it is the better value by area even though it costs more for each foot of frontage. In meters, a 30 by 45 meter lot at $90,000 costs $66.67 a square meter.
Which unit price to use
Price per square foot or acre is the fairest comparison of land you use as a whole, such as a place to build or farm. Price per front foot matters when the width on the road is what you are paying for, as with narrow city lots where the depth is similar. A lot that is cheap by area may be a long thin strip with little use, so look at the shape as well.
The tool lists every lot in the order you typed it and puts the lowest price per area in the headline. It does not rank lots by quality.
What to check next
The price of land says nothing about slope, access, utilities, flood risk, zoning or rights of way. Those can matter far more than a difference of a few cents a square foot. For splitting a lot see the Land Subdivision Lot Yield Calculator, for comparing price with rent the Price to Rent Ratio Calculator, for what you can borrow the Mortgage Affordability Calculator, and for planting the Trees per Acre Calculator.
Assumptions and limits
- Each lot is a rectangle, and the frontage is the side on the road.
- An acre is 43,560 square feet and a hectare is 10,000 square meters.
- The lots shown are examples. Use the lots you are looking at.
- Taxes, closing costs and improvements are not part of the price.
Frequently asked questions
What is a front foot?
A foot of the lot's width along the road. Price per front foot is the price divided by that width.
Can I compare lots in different units?
Convert them to one unit first. The unit selector applies to every lot at once.
How many lots can I compare?
Up to ten. Each line needs a name and three numbers above zero.
Why does the headline show the lowest price per area?
It is the quickest comparison of what you get for the money. The table lets you look at the other measures.