Under roof square footage is the total area covered by a home's roof, including the heated and cooled living space plus garages, carports, porches, lanais and other covered areas. It is always larger than the living area, which counts only finished, air-conditioned space. Listings show both so you can see how much genuinely usable covered space comes with the house.
Under roof square footage is the area of everything that sits under the home's roofline, whether it is air-conditioned or not. It is one of the most misread numbers on a Florida listing, and one of the most useful once you understand it. 7400 Locust St NE is a clean example: 1,824 sq ft of living area and 3,209 sq ft under roof. The gap between those figures is not an error. It is the garage, the carport and the porch, and for a lot of buyers that gap is the reason to look at the house.
What is the difference between living area and under roof?
Living area is the finished, heated and cooled space inside the home. Under roof adds every covered area that is not heated and cooled: the garage, the carport, the covered porch, the screened lanai and similar spaces.
Appraisers and the county property appraiser generally measure living area from the exterior walls of the conditioned space, using a consistent standard so homes can be compared. A garage is not living area even if it is attached and drywalled. A screened lanai is not living area even if you eat dinner out there most nights. Both are under roof. When you compare two homes with the same living area and very different under-roof totals, you are looking at very different amounts of covered parking and storage. Buying a home with a workshop and garage in St. Pete
Why do Florida listings show both numbers?
Because in Florida the covered, unconditioned space is a large part of how a home actually functions. Cars, tools, kayaks and outdoor living all happen under a roof but outside the air conditioning.
A listing that only showed living area would undersell a home with a big garage and a lanai, and oversell a home with none. Showing both lets a buyer see the shape of the property at a glance. The living area tells you how much conditioned space you will heat, cool and furnish. The under-roof figure tells you how much sheltered space you get for everything else. Both are drawn from public records and the MLS, and both should be verified by the buyer, which we say about our own listing as well.
How is price per square foot calculated, and which number does it use?
Price per square foot almost always divides the price by the living area, not the under-roof total. That convention keeps comparisons fair between homes with and without garages.
For 7400 Locust St NE, the offered price of $499,995 works out to $274 per square foot of living area. If you divided by the under-roof figure instead, you would get a much lower number that would not be comparable to any other listing, because nobody else calculates it that way. When you see a price-per-foot figure on any listing, confirm which square footage it uses before you compare. Run the numbers on the same basis or the comparison is meaningless.
What counts under roof at 7400 Locust St NE?
The oversized 2-car garage, the 2-car carport and the screened front porch are the covered spaces that push the total from 1,824 sq ft of living area to 3,209 sq ft under roof. The workshop shed is a separate structure in the back yard.
Whether a detached shed appears in an under-roof figure depends on how the county property appraiser records it, so treat the shed as a bonus rather than assuming it is inside the number. What is not in doubt is what the space does. Four covered parking spaces mean the cars, the truck and the trailer are out of the sun and rain. The garage is oversized, which means room for a workbench and storage along with the vehicles. The porch is screened and faces the preserve and park across the street, which in Florida is the difference between a porch you use and a porch you look at. Room for the things you actually own, use and enjoy is not a slogan here; it is the under-roof number doing its job. 5 bedroom house for sale in St. Petersburg FL
How do you verify square footage before you buy?
Pull the public record, read the appraisal sketch and measure anything that matters to you. Square footage on a listing is deemed reliable but is not a survey.
- Look up the parcel on the Pinellas County Property Appraiser site and note the living area and total area it records.
- Compare those figures with the MLS listing; small differences are common because measuring standards differ.
- Ask your lender's appraiser for the sketch in the appraisal report, which shows how the living area was measured.
- Measure the garage, carport and porch yourself, or have your inspector do it, if their size affects your plans.
- Ask which measuring standard was used if two sources disagree by more than a small amount, and rely on the appraisal for lending purposes.
Which square footage terms mean what?
Listings, appraisals and county records use overlapping terms. This table sorts them out.
| Term | What it includes | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Living area (heated / conditioned) | Finished, air-conditioned space measured from exterior walls | Price per square foot, appraisals, comparing homes |
| Under roof (total area) | Living area plus garage, carport, porches, lanai and other covered space | Judging usable covered space, parking and storage |
| Gross building area | All floors measured to exterior walls, sometimes including unfinished areas | Commercial and some appraisal contexts |
| Lot size | The land parcel itself, including the footprint of the home | Yard, setbacks, outbuildings, expansion |
| Detached structures | Sheds, workshops and other buildings not attached to the home | Recorded separately by the county; may or may not be in the under-roof figure |
Why does under roof matter to investors and house hackers?
Because covered parking and storage are amenities tenants pay attention to, and they are part of what makes a five-bedroom home work as a shared house. Living area is where people sleep; under roof is where their vehicles and belongings go.
A traditional tenant with a truck and a boat, a co-living household with several cars, or a multi-generational family with a workshop hobby all use the under-roof space every day. When you evaluate a rental, count the covered spaces and the storage the same way you count the bedrooms. At 7400 Locust St NE the seller projects rents up to $4,400 per month traditional or up to $6,400 per month co-living; those are projections to verify with a local property manager, an insurance agent and the City of St. Petersburg, but the four covered parking spaces and the shed are part of why the co-living case is even on the table. Solid block construction, a 2021 roof, and no HOA round out the picture. Benefits of a concrete block home in Florida
If you want the county record and the MLS sheet for 7400 Locust St NE so you can compare the square footage yourself, just ask.
Ask about 7400 Locust St NEFrequently asked questions
A: Yes. An attached garage, a carport and covered porches or lanais are all counted under roof, even though none of them count as living area.
A: No. A screened lanai is unconditioned space, so it is included under roof but not in the living area, regardless of how much you use it.
A: Appraisers value the living area and treat garages, carports and lanais as separate line-item adjustments, which is why price per square foot is based on living area.
A: Different measuring standards and dates produce small differences; verify with the property appraiser record and the lender's appraisal sketch if the figure matters to your decision.