An unfinished basement for $200k. The house was 10 years old and dated then.

In those days only finished sq footage was counted in house size. Today they count the total envelope size and must just state that the basement isn’t finished. That change made the price per sq foot come crashing down for new houses

I noticed a newer house in our area that was listed with the price and total sq footage. Then the pictures showed the basement wasn’t finished. Yikes that is expensive. Nothing was done in the basement at all! I went back and reread the listing sure enough last line of the listing. “Basement is unfinished.”

So that house I bought years ago is now 5200 sq feet and yea it is all finished. But the basement apartment pays the mortgage and water bill