Does a walk-out basement count toward the square footage of home?

[Anonymous]

I understand the dividing line is above soil and below soil. But as our house is built into a slope, a part of the basement if below soil and another part is above soil. From one room, one can exit direclty into the back yard without climbing a step. We're in DC.

Any insights would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I think it's still considered below grade.

[Anonymous]

I have the same thing, and when I purchased a few years ago, the appraisal did not count the footage in the basement. But like you, if you walked out one part of the basement you would be above ground.

[Anonymous]

No basements are not included. If they would, people would have had to pay a lot more property tax. However, people count is as a livable space when they are selling.

[Anonymous]

Appraisals will count below grade finished space at about 65% value per sf. Real estate listings count finished below grade in the sf listing. Tax assessments count only above grade.

[Anonymous]

I would think for listing purposes you couldn't include in sq footage, but you could say "400 sq ft finished basement/ AP or in law suite, etc".

[Anonymous]

Even for townhomes that are all above grade, the basement level is counted as below grade.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for the resposnes. Very helpful.
(OP)

[Anonymous]

The answer as you can see is "it depends". For property tax assessments, basements do not count. For real estate listings, an agent is going to include whatever they can get away with, so for a rambler with a walk-out basement, typically you would include the finished part of the basement in SF calcs. An appraiser will generally include some type of percentage, 50-60%, of the above-grade value and apply that to finished basement space.

To make it more complicated, basement bathrooms and bedrooms count at 100% of value for appraisals.

[Anonymous]

So if you want to increase the value of your house without paying more taxes, put your efforts into the basement...