Question on housing costs

[bob007]

I had a question on how much does it cost to build a house. I want to know how much the materials will cost and how much the labor costs.

How much geographical variation is present in the cost of labor and in the cost of materials ?

A friend of mine indicated it cost $400,000 to build a new home in Silicon Valley in Northern California. Assume you have a free parcel of land.

[Raybyrnes]

There is a fairly easy way to come up with an estimate. Ask an insurance agent what the replacement cost value is going to be in a given area. A 750000 might only have a replacement cost of 250K. The difference obviouly being land costs. From there you can begin to make estimates. Insurance companies are usually pretty good with actuarial tables. I would begin there.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

Insurance companies are notorious for low-balling the cost of building. My agent tried to convince me that my just-remodeled house (in 2001)could be replaced for about $95 per square foot.

Costs can vary widely, depending on the amenities and items such as number of bathrooms, etc. A bathroom is much more expensive per square foot than say a bedroom. Assuming a single custom home (as opposed to builder tract) for middle-of-the-road typical 2400 s.f. in SD I would guess about $150 per square foot these days. Assuming a general contractor. If you acted as your own GC and managed all the subs, it could be reduced by perhaps 20% if you are experienced. For the major builders the costs are significantly lower because of leverage in the size and continuity of the jobs for the subcontractors. Additionally, it is easier for the subcontractors to work on a dozen consecutive similar projects than a dozen completely different ones with differing levels of plan detail and customer quirks.

[PerryChase]

Some builders can sell new 2000sf house for $130k in some parts of the country. Assume the land were free, that works out to $65/sf. Of course it’s substantially higher in CA.

I believe that the margin in building is pretty high. That’s why there are so many contractors around. If the profits weren’t there, people wouldn’t be doing it.

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