If an appraiser values vacant land by value per square foot, this demonstrates which concept?

• A. Unit value
• B. Market value
• C. Unit of comparison
• D. Replacement cost

Answer: (C)

Using a unit of comparison means expressing value in a standard measure so properties of different sizes can be compared on an apples-to-apples basis. When vacant land is valued by value per square foot, the square foot is the unit used to express and compare value across parcels. This lets you see how much value each square foot represents and then scale to total value if needed. It isn’t about the overall market value of a single parcel or the cost to replace a property; those are separate concepts. While value per square foot is a kind of unit value, the idea being demonstrated is applying a unit of comparison to normalize differences in size across properties.