Are you thinking about building a new house? Want to know just how much does it cost to build a house? If you are, there are some associated costs with any new home build you should know about. In addition, with so many hidden fees and unforeseen problems, how do you make sure you have enough money budgeted to build a new home? In this article, you will learn not only about the costs to build a house but about some other critical elements that are just as important.
Exterior finishes like a stone facade and brick on the outside will add to the price. Custom high-end finishes such as brazilian cherry or a plank walnut, more crown molding, coffered ceilings, and copper gutters also add to the final price. Depending on whether you use a home builder or not, it pays to research all material costs.
These are fixed costs when building a new home. Things that you simply can’t adjust. These are costs for building materials and labor. Square feet prices are just prices going up and in many areas labor is in short supply. If you’re building yourself and material shopping yourself, you can save 30 or 40 cents per stud. That pales in comparison to the amount of money you can save on your choices on countertops and plumbing fixtures and electrical fixtures.
Most of what has been spent prior to the drywall is a fixed cost. There is very very little that you can do to reduce the costs of the building material in the bones of your house. It’s going to take a certain amount of concrete, a certain amount of lumber and a certain amount of labor to build a new house. Those things add up.
Average Costs Single-Family Homes Building Costs Are Ever-Changing and Local
Way back in my contractor years, I worked with national builders like Pulte, Mungo, Remark and even some high-end custom home builders in Hinsdale, Illinois and in the Carolinas. I can remember pricing per square foot for a new home ranged from $50 -$75 to build out a new home. Now those costs vary in many cases more than doubled to $100 to $120 per square foot now. With the national average at $150 per square foot. This is for very basic home and nothing fancy.
Also, keep in mind these prices may not represent your local area but are more like an average from the southeast and Midwest areas. Please consult with a local Realtor who can not only connect you with a local home builder but help you in a lot purchase find as well. I have made a local Realtor list below by city and state that I can recommend. An experienced local Realtor doesn’t cost you money but rather guides you in the right direction by saving you time, money and headaches. It pays to get with a local Realtor. Especially for your most valued asset in line.
As far as home prices on the basic if you choose vinyl siding and vinyl floors, the carpet you can pay $110 a square foot for the basic new home build. If you go with hardwood floors, tile, solid surface countertop, custom cabinets and some kind of upgraded exterior finish like a fiber cement hardiplank, expect to pay $135 per square foot. Here is a general breakdown per foot.
Three Main Elements to Consider in New Home Construction Costs
The question of how much does it cost to build a house really boils down to three main areas. Design, Cost, and Marketability. Design is actually the most important to consider in my opinion when trying to figure out the costs of building a new home. It is so closely related and if you get it wrong you will be stuck with a poorly designed house. Regardless if you are building a house for yourself or not, these three areas have got to be part of your calculation. Don’t just look at the line items to build a house like an accountant. You need to see the whole picture when building a house.
- Building cost determined by house design and house square feet
- Construction cost tied to the type of materials used.
- Price to build in relation to marketability and location
Average Cost To Build a House Starting Points
What Kind of House Design?
One of the rules of thumb, when you start this, is to get very clear in your mind one undeniable truth about building something. You will never recover if you commit yourself to bad design. Bad design means is if you put your house in the wrong spot. If the location is wrong. If the location on your lot is wrong. If the orientation relative to the solar exposure or your driveway location is off. The orientation of the windows in your house is wrong, then either you’re not going to get a view or you’re going to get a view that you hate. I can’t stress enough about bad design. It brings the average cost way down come time to sell. If you get the design wrong, it will always be wrong.
First, it’s not just square footage. In other words, floor space adds to the total costs, it’s cubic feet enclosing the structure that add the true cost of a new home. For example, if you are going to have 2-story high spacious rooms with grand foyers and entries. This adds a big chunk to the total costs of a new home. Any time you add cubic footage volume inside a house it is directly related to total costs. Simply put taller walls, taller roofs are more material costs.
But did you know a single-story house is more expensive per square foot than a two-story house? Yes, it’s true, because you are actually building half exactly half of the foundation and half of the roof per square foot.
One two-story foundation gets you twice as many square feet of living space. But it is less expensive to build two-story generally than single-story in terms of square feet. Something to consider with a ranch house is that you will need a wider lot. Wide lots for ranch homes in many communities are a premium.
Design is something you can’t recover from. Bad design in real estate lingo can also mean functionally obsolete. Here are some examples of bad design. Building a 5 bedroom home with 2 bathrooms is one example. Getting the elevation of your house wrong. If you get your house too low, for example, the water is going to drain the wrong way. Higher is generally better because water is what damages homes. I have personally done way too many water repair jobs myself. They are bad news.
What about the size size of a house in relation to building costs? You have to think carefully about the difference between what we want and what we can afford. Then consider the function. The function is one of the trickier aspects of design because if you haven’t been professionally trained it’s hard to anticipate how a house actually functions. What it’ll actually be like living in the space.
Also, there are many energy-efficient options available in today’s market like upgraded insulation, concrete walls, solar and much more. Be sure to check out local home shows, parade of homes or see a local Realtor and builder resource center to learn more. Maybe you want to build a custom-designed green home and there the price per square foot can vary a lot also. Building your own home can be very rewarding, but consider all major systems and additional factors you may have not considered. Heating and cooling building designs to suit the area you want to build in. This can either cost you or save you in the long run.
There are many home designs out there to suit your needs but affect costs in homebuilding. Talk with a custom home builder and they might help you oversee your costs of building as well as the pros and cons. So that’s why at some point or another I always recommend you get input from a professional architect and builder. A local Realtor will put you in touch with the local leading Architects and Home Builders. Be sure to consult with a structural engineer in some cases where you have a special lot which requires a unique foundation buildout
What is the Total House Building Cost?
For any home, the builder cost is a big driver. Whether you’re doing this yourself or using a general contractor to handle all of the aspects of the process, dollars are the thing that we tend to think about and talk about first and most.
Only about 20% of the cost of a house is in the framing, the structure, the walls, sheathing, and the joists. So when you’re looking to save money on a house framing this is not the big target but can be manageable.
One thing that can skew the construction costs is the framing of the roof. There are expensive roofs and there are inexpensive roofs. The expensive roofs are steep. Steep roofs are multi-angled, they’re multi-pitch, have dormers and hips. They have all manner of decorations and valleys. They’re beautiful but at the same time, they’re expensive to frame. If you can simplify your roof design you’re going to reduce your construction costs least in that 20% or so of the construction costs that are involved in the framing.
Construction costs also vary around the country depending on demand. Sometimes you cannot get bids from contractors due to the pace of the market. A hot market means everyone is building in a frenzy and available labor is scarce. Materials costs tend to remain stable except when there are shortages of lumber or concrete for example. For years Houston was touted as the place to build the biggest house for the least cost. Primarily due to low labor costs. Environmental regulations and difficult zoning laws also ratchet up costs. No doubt difficult to build lots of additional costs.