Lot Size and Market Value – Out the Window?

By Robin Shapiro

In recent years, I’ve seen houses on smaller lots  (40×100, and 30×100) sell for a lot of money. In some cases, the price was comparable to prices paid on houses with larger lots (50×100 or 60×100). The overriding factor was the house condition. My guess is that people didn’t want to buy fixer-uppers during the pandemic – they didn’t want to worry about building permits, finding construction workers, and ordering construction materials. I do not remember seeing such demand for mint properties before the pandemic. The high inflation rate of recent years probably was a factor, as well.

These sales violated an old “rule of thumb” GENERALIZATION about lot size and market value in Rockaway: In the “old” days, if two houses were almost identical in all respects (hypothetically) except that they had different lot size, then the difference in market value was approximately $100k between 40×100, 50×100, and 60×100 houses.

Houses on larger lots (bigger than 60×100) were always worth more on the above scale. Such properties were more difficult to evaluate due to scarcity, location of the property and condition of the house.

In recent years, the old “rules of thumb” were thrown OUT THE WINDOW, although larger lots remain relatively valuable. Will the market revert to the old pricing methods?  Currently I’m seeing unusual demand for larger properties. Call me for a comparative market analysis.  Love, Robin.