For any individual who plans to own a house would naturally be curious to know how much does it cost to build a house. As a prospective home owner wouldn’t want to shell out more just because the construction company or building contractor says so. To come up with an exact figure which is all-encompassing can be slightly tricky yet, here, we provide you a range and the factors that affect that price range.
Generally, there arises only two situations when we are curious to know the cost of building a house; when we want to build a house by ourselves or when a contractor or builder provides you a quote for the cost of a house. Now, there isn’t a set standard or guide that can provide us an exact figure regarding the total cost, since the total cost is influenced by many factors, but certain estimates put the cost of building a new home in the United States in the range of $80 to $110 per square foot which does not include cost of land and builder profit.
Factors that Decide the Cost of a House
To build a house, the first thing you would need to do is to buy a plot of land. The cost of the home to be built depends largely on the price of the land. In an upmarket, luxurious and high-end locality, you will have to spend a bomb to acquire the land. On the contrary, if the land is in the outskirts of the city or in a rural region, the price of the land would be much less as compared to that in the heart of the city.
The cost of a house to be built also largely depends on the cost of manpower and building materials which vary from time to time and from place to place. As per several real estate market surveys, the cost of building a new home can be in the range of $90 to $200 per square foot. If the average area of a house, works out to be around 2500 square feet, then the cost for building it will typically lie in the range of $200,000 to $500,000. The interior of the home will cost you as per your choices and preferences. The cost of the home construction will naturally increase if you hire a professional builder, to do it for you. On an average, a builder or a construction company can charge you anything in between $50 to $120. You can save a lot of your money, if you plan to build a house yourself.
As we all know, the land prices and the price of construction materials like cement are low in times of recession, but they shoot up very fast when the economy recovers fully. So, the time when you start the construction is a very crucial factor in determining the total cost of the home. You should ideally consult the real estate agents or brokers and some reputed builders, who have complete information about the prices which are prevalent in the market to avoid spending more money on your house.
The cost of the home to be built also depends on the kind of home you wish to build. If you wish to build log homes, which are much in demand due to their cool look, you will have to shell out anything in between $100 to $120 per square feet. The median cost of building a new home in the United States, according to The National Association of Realtors, is around $181,300.
Besides the above mentioned factors, some factors can bear an indirect influence on the total cost. In times of recession the cost of home construction will drop and the reverse will be true when the economy is looking up. Many real estate experts feel that a rise in the cost of construction between six to ten percent cannot be ruled out due to the effect of inflation on the real estate sector.
