HawthorneVillager.com

Do they include Garage and balconies in their total square footage?

Is it normal for builders to do this?

They calculatethe living space,which does not include balcony, garage, backyard space. Sometime they include open to above space and balcony but they spell it out on the diagram. Also the square footage is calculate from exterior wall to exterior wall and not from the inside walls.

The great mistery of square forage. We sold our old house in Milton which was listed at 1100 sq. ft. and bought a new one in Hawthorne, which was listed at 1800 sq. ft.

But guess what? We had more room in our old house than in the new one. Go figure.

on the Model Specific forum, people have said Garages are included in square footage. They've found this out when it's time to put hardwood floor in their homes and realized the sq ft wasn't as much as they thought it was.

Good point on measurement. The best policy is to measure size of rooms during frame walk. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way. First of all, the size in one of the bedrooms was changed from the original brochures to the official plans on which you have to sign approval. I didn't catch this difference, and the B/R was narrower by 5" from the brochure.
During the PDI, this same bedroom became 7" narrower than the brochure or 2" narrower than the plan which I had signed approval.
It is very important that any inconsistencies be caught before you sign the official diagrams. I've heard of people who caught the fact that they were missing a window in the upgraded spa bathroom during the frame walk.
Buyer be ware is the best policy.

Eyeballing the new floor plans Mattamy put up for sale, it seems including the garage in the sq footage gives me a more accurate number.

I did this with the Rear Lane Towns, Village Homes, and 36ft homes and every time the number I got was closer to the listed square footage when I included the garage.

When calculating the sqft in the house make sure you calculate the whole first floor as one room and not room by room and add them together because there's a lot of dead space behind the interior walls. Garage are not living space, unless they specify on the document, they can't include that as part of the square footage.