Valuing vacant industrial land by value per square foot is an example of which unit of comparison?

• A. Unit of comparison
• B. Price per square foot
• C. Market approach
• D. Cost approach

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that value is expressed relative to a unit of land area. Valuing vacant industrial land by value per square foot uses a rate that shows dollars for each square foot of land. This unit—price per square foot—lets you compare different parcels on a common basis, normalizing for size so a smaller lot isn’t undervalued or a larger one overvalued just because of total price. The other ideas aren’t the specific unit used to express value in this context: the market or cost approaches are appraisal methods, and simply saying “unit of comparison” is too vague to describe how the value is expressed.