I know this is a very old question, but I googled my way here and found the answer provided not 100% satisfying, because as gcl1 mentioned - this way the footer is not really a footer to the screen - it's just an "add-on" to the list.
Bottom line - for others who may google their way here - I found the following suggestion here: Fixed and always visible footer below ListFragment
Try doing as follows, where the emphasis is on the button (or any footer element) listed first in the XML - and then the list is added as "layout_above":
<RelativeLayout>
<Button android:id="@+id/footer" android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"/>
<ListView android:id="@android:id/list" **android:layout_above**="@id/footer"> <!-- the list -->
</RelativeLayout>