Definition of "Replacement cost"

Mary  O Connell real estate agent

Written by

Mary O Connellelite badge icon

O Connell Properties

Are you thinking to yourself: What does replacement cost mean?

When someone in the Real Estate Market mentions Replacement Cost, they are talking about an evaluation of how much it would cost to build a completely identical new house to replace an old one. By completely identical, read as built with the same materials (or materials of equal quality), the same square footage and the same amount of bedrooms, bathrooms and whatever other types of rooms the preexisting house had. Included in this calculation is also the manpower required to build the new house on the place of the old one.

Why is this done? Well, determining the replacement value of an asset is mostly done for insurance reasons – like calculating the depreciation of the house over its useful life to cover any damage – but the so-called replacement cost approach can also be done by an Appraiser in order to help assert the Market Value of a house in volatile markets where the real estate market external factors are difficult to evaluate.

Real Estate Secrets:

Building a new house to replace the old one? There are a bunch of other terms you should look on our 
Glossary to guide you through this tiring process!

You know a difficult replacement cost to calculate? That of a trustworthy agent! Use The OFFICIAL Real Estate Directory® to find one!

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Real Estate Terms

A gift by will of real property. Absolute legasy: An unconditional and immediate gift. Conditional legasy: The bequest of a gift depends on the occurrence of something happening. For ...

A caveat vendor is a legal principle where the seller is legally responsible for warranting the quality and suitability to task of the item purchased. ...

When a property owner defaults on his or her tax payments, the taxing jurisdiction may force a liquidation of the property or tax sale for the purpose of collecting the owed real estate ...

Supports a structure. ...

Interest rate on a mortgage is changed periodically based on the change in a general price index to take into account inflation, such as a yearly adjustment. An example is the consumer ...

A financial obligation comes in several ways. In general terms, the meaning of liability refers to the amount of money an individual or company owes to a lender. We define the party holding ...

(1) Distribution channel through which originating mortgage lenders distribute mortgages to the Secondary Mortgage Market. Those purchasing mortgages distributed through the conduit ...

Method of constructing a brick, block, or stone wall using mortar in various overlapping patterns. The brick pattern is extremely important in terms of adding strength and stability to the ...

The two terms used to describe professionals in the real estate industry are “realtor” and “real estate agent”. These two terms are used interchangeably or as ...

Popular Real Estate Questions