Cost per Square Footage

lex-talionisub17_ESO

When my fiance and I recently returned to ESO, I started looking into housing. Being somewhat OCD, the thing that kept niggling at me was I didn't really know exactly what I was getting for my money, be it gold or crowns. So, I decided to get some info first hand. I'm taking measurements of all of the houses available in the Crown Store right now using the methods below. I have completed all of the apartments, small houses and medium houses. The large houses and manors will take a bit longer. Here I wanted to disseminate my findings so far in an easy to read format for future reference.

For those who are interested, here is the google sheet where I am performing my calcuations:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CcQ8JWQQjESc1aik1tVYBtz8kGVN6St1gPyPZyJebBk/edit?usp=sharing

MEASUREMENT METHOD

Using a single character set to walk, I draw a weapon to keep facing consistent and move in a straight line across an area, counting my steps. The number of steps are used as the measurement of that area in feet. Obtrusive objects, such as large pillars, stairwells and fireplaces are measured as well, with their size subtracted from the total square feet.

Square Area: STEPS LONG * STEPS WIDE
Circular Area: p * (STEPS / 2) ^2
Half Circle Area: p * (STEPS) ^2
Irregular Area: https://www.squarefootagearea.com/calculator/area-of-irregular-shape/

Obviously this method is more accurate for square and rectangular spaces with flat, even floor surfaces. Exterior spaces with many rocks, trees and irregular shapes are going to be considerably less accurate, but still close enough to get a really good idea of the value.

APARTMENTS

BEST VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Sisters of the Sands Apartment (Redguard)

At 80 square feet, the Sisters of the Sands Apartment is the largest available apartment style home. Fortunately, at 12,000 gold or 640 crowns, it also works out as the best value in its size range. 150 gold per square foot, 8 crowns per square foot.

WORST VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Barbed Hook Private Room (Altmer)

Totaling only 56 square feet, the Barbed Hook Private Room is an exercise in throwing away gold or crowns. Even with the lower price of 11,000 gold or 600 crowns, what you get for that is a gold per square foot cost of 196.43, and a crowns per square foot cost of 10.71.

SMALL HOUSES

BEST TOTAL VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Autumn's-Gate (Nord)

Though the interior of Autumn's-Gate is only a middling 180 square feet, the exterior is a massive 495 square feet. This home's cost is in the middle range as well at 60,000 gold or 2,350 crowns, but overall that comes out to just 88.89 gold or 3.48 crowns per total square foot, a true bargain for total space in the small house category.

BEST INTERIOR VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Twin Arches (Redguard)

Clocking in at a 300 square foot interior, the Twin Arches has the best interior value in this category. It also sports a decent 277 squaure foot exterior, for a grand total of 577 square feet. The cost for this small home is the highest in its group at 73,000 gold or 2,600 crowns. Even so, with its large interior that still works out to 243.33 gold or 8.67 crowns per interior sqaure foot. It's also a decent 126.63 gold or 4.51 crowns per total square foot.

WORST INTERIOR VALUE
GOLD: Cyrodilic Jungle House (Imperial)

Though the Cyrodilic Jungle House has the highest total square feet in this category at 792, it sports a very small 80 square foot interior. At 71,000 gold, it comes out as the worst gold per interior square foot value at 887.50.

CROWNS: Humblemud (Argonian)

Humblemud takes the worst interior value for crowns by a small margin over the Cyrodilic Jungle House. It has an absolutely tiny 63 interior square feet. Even the lowest crown cost in the category, 2,100, still works out to 33.33 crowns per interior square foot.

WORST TOTAL VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Captain Margaux's Place (Breton)

With only 114 interior square feet and no outdoor space, Captain Margaux's Place bombs out hard for value. At 56,000 gold or 2,300 crowns, the price is in the middle range. That's actually a cost of 491.23 gold or 20.18 crowns per total square foot!

MEDIUM HOUSES

BEST TOTAL VALUE
GOLD: Boulder Tree Refuge (Bosmer)

Boulder Tree Refuge is all about the outdoor space, with 1,525 exterior square feet. That only leaves 113 square feet in its single room, for a grand total of 1,751 square feet. At the lowest cost in its category of 190,000 gold, this house can be yours for the ridiculously low price of 108.51 gold per total square feet.

CROWNS: Mournoth Keep (Orc)

Taking the best total crown value per square foot is Mournoth Keep, with the highest total square feet in its category of 2,953. Though it has a steep crown price tag of 4,300, it comes out to a lovely 1.46 crown cost per total square foot.

BEST INTERIOR VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Ald Velothi Harbor House (Redoran Dunmer)

Ald Velothi Harbor House has the largest interior for its category, at 833 square feet. Though its cost is in the higher gold range at 322,000 and the middle crown range at 4,000, that's only 386.64 gold or 4.8 crowns per square foot. With 3 true bedrooms, a basement and a large landing, this house really takes the cake for interior space.

WORST INTERIOR VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Sleek Creek House (Khajiit)

This Khajiit home has the lowest interior square footage and the largest price tag in its category. At 127 interior square feet and a 335,000 gold or 4,400 crown cost, it's a whopping 2,637.80 gold or 34.65 crowns per interior square foot. Not much sweetness here.

WORST TOTAL VALUE
GOLD & CROWNS: Cliffshade (Altmer)

The 820.95 interior only square feet of Cliffshade seems like a good, reasonable middle ground. The prices aren't really that steep either at 255,000 gold and 3,600 crowns. Mathing that out though comes up to 820.95 gold or 11.59 crowns per total square foot, nearly double the cost per total square foot of the next nearest home. Ouch!

dtsharples

This is great to know
Looks like a lot of work, but thanks very much for doing it. It should really help those buying a house for the 1st time to weigh up which property offers them the best value for their gold / crowns.

Zypheran

Wow. I wish I could give you more than one 'insightful'.
You know that feeling when you just always knew something but then you get that sense of validation when somebody actually does the numbers to prove it!

NoTimeToWait

Wonderful information! +Insightful. Actually, I would strongly suggest to add one more statistical value: furnishing slots per SFT. Ironically, in Manors and Large houses it would be better to have less square meters, than more xD

@R_K Actually, looking at this, I wanted to ask: do we have a good measurement tool in EHT? We have a grid, which is cool, but more suitable for local and small measurements.

Maybe some time in future we could get a measurement ray, that can be cast by pressing a hot key and it would measure the distance between point of collision and the character's head? So, basically, put crosshairs on a distant wall, press U and get a small window with distance and collision coordinates?

Nestor

Thank you for doing this work. Much appreciated.

Of course, now I have to ask for more....For me, exterior space is more important as I set up most of my homes outside areas and leave interiors alone. Less loads to craft stations and all. Some want to do Dueling and the like so need more space. Do you have any plans to measure outdoor space? Some of these homes have little to no yard.

lex-talionisub17_ESO

@NoTimeToWait - I do plan to keep working on the charts and adding new info. Furniture slots per square foot could easily be added.

@Nestor - The Google chart does have exterior square footage. I already have the info, it would just be a matter of plugging it into this post.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, but I'll be back on this soon.

Nestor

I see that now on your spreadsheet. I had just looked that posted results when I was on my phone. You have put a massive amount of work into this project.

Many Kudos to you. Again, Thank You for the work.