02/01/2023
I often get square footage questions and thought you might find the latest Fannie Mae requirements interesting; See below:
As of April 1, 2022, Fannie Mae is requiring that all properties be measured in accordance with
guidelines established in the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Square Footage - Method
for Calculating Booklet ANSI Z765-2021.
ANSI Standard 1 Requires:
“Measurements are taken to the nearest inch or tenth of a foot and the final square footage is reported
to the nearest whole square foot.
Staircases are included in the GLA of the floor from which they descend.
Basement is any space that is partially or completely below grade.
The GLA calculation does not include openings to the floor below, e.g., two-story foyers.
Finished areas must have a ceiling height of at least 7’. In a room with a sloping ceiling, at least 50%
of the finished square footage of the room must have a ceiling height of at least 7’ and no portion of
the finished area that has a ceiling height of less than 5’ can be included in the GLA.
If a house has a finished area that does not have a ceiling height of 7’ for 50% of the finished area,
e.g., some cape cods, in conformance with the ANSI Standard, the appraiser may put this area on a
separate line in the Sales Comparison Grid with the appropriate market adjustment. The report will be
ANSI-compliant and also acknowledge the contributing value of the non-GLA square footage”.
The ANSI measuring standard requires the appraiser to measure and separate above grade rooms
and living areas from any below grade rooms and living areas as well as measuring upper rooms with
sloped ceilings which may contain areas of minimal ceiling clearance. The implementation of the
ANSI measuring standard has created many new challenges for the appraiser when selecting search
criteria for comparable properties as well as determining the correct square footage of any
comparable which would need to be subjected to the same standard of measurement. Prior to the
implementation of the ANSI standard, the real estate industry as well as most municipalities typically
included the finished lower levels and rooms of Bi level, Tri-level and Quad-level style homes in their
total square footage calculation. Consequently, most realtors also include these rooms and living
areas in their MLS listing tickets. This current industry practice has forced the appraiser to expand
square footage parameters when searching for comparable properties creating a “wider than desired”
range of housing sizes, styles and sale prices which at the current time, are unavoidable. When
available during the normal course of business, the appraiser has obtained building sketches for
comparables that may contain below grade living areas and rooms in order to make accurate
comparisons in terms of above grade / below grade living areas and room counts and will correctly
calculate and reflect those rooms and living areas in the sales grid of this report. Since many Tri-, Biand
Quad-level style homes contain bedrooms and or bathrooms in their finished lower levels,
bracketing above grade GLA, bedroom and bathrooms may not always be possible as a result of this
new measuring standard.
