Real estate

Real estate is land plus anything permanently attached to it, such as houses and other buildings. The term also covers the business of buying, selling, and renting that property.

Residential real estate is where gross living area matters most. Listings, appraisals, and tax records all describe homes by their size, and buyers often compare prices per square foot from one home to the next.

Those sources do not always measure the same way. A listing might include a finished basement that the appraisal leaves out. ANSI Z765 gives appraisers one method, so the size on an appraisal means the same thing from one house to the next.

Further reading: Real estate on Wikipedia.