Buying A Home
GreenEyedGal
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Is building a home more expensive than buying one?
Sorry for the dumb question, bare with me as we're new to this.
Basically, unless we want to live in the ghetto, we can't afford to live in the city, not with our specific criteria anyway. With that said, we're considering moving to the subhurbs. Would we do it if it meant our children going to a good school and living in a good neighborhood? Yes. Is it ideal? No.
Would building a house from the ground up on a lot in our neighborhood of choice be about the same price as purchasing one?
My guess is no but I thought I would ask anyway.
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Re: Is building a home more expensive than buying one?
In our town no, building is not more expensive than buying one. Our first offer on a 1925 home that fell thru due to electrical inspection, was only $22,000.00 less than what we are building our home for. Our new build is in a great neighborhood with lots of couples our age, in fact it will be great for when we have kids too. The backside of our house faces a new elementry (1 year old) and jr. high school (first year will be this year). Down the street we call it "kid corner" all the kids are on bikes going from one side to the other and the parents hang out in the driveways and chat. My husband even got the option of the 3rd car garage which is great because we have 3 4-wheelers and a hugh toolbox, when we first started househunting we thought that we would not have enough garage space.
With new builds you have to think of the items that are not going to come in the house that may come in a preowned one. Like blinds, window coverings and appliances just to name a few.
Good Luck!!
It depends on your price range, the area, the sort of lot you'd be buying, the materials you'd be using, etc.
Generally speaking (in our area), it would be more expensive. For example, in the area that we are buying, you can buy a 20-40 yr old house with 3 bed/2 bath, 2000 ish square feet for anywhere from $165 (older, needs some remodeling) -$220,000 (fairly upgraded, etc). To build the same house, you'd be starting around $250 (but then you have to add appliances, etc).
Also, it seemed like the new build mortgage rates were slightly higher than conventional.
Personally, it's not something I would do unless it was going to be my "forever" home.
it depends.
in my city (philadelphia) it would probably be about the same price as buying an existing house in a good neighborhood.
we aren't moving to the burbs, but a part of the city that isn't as close to center city, it has a better school catchment, pt to center city etc. but yeah suburbs aren't our style.
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Thinking of doing cosmetic updates to a dated home? These were our costs.
In the specific neighborhood we were wanting a home... it was pretty much even to build or buy. We new we wanted to live in a specific subdivision and we only considered homes in that neighborhood
We had enough time to build - so we figured we might as well get exactly what we want in regards to finishes, wall colors, floor plan, etc.
Obviously, this answer will vary greatly depending on where you live - and even what neighborhoods you want.
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Like PP said, depending where you build, and buy. In our area, if you wanted to buy a lot anywhere close to the city, you would pay probably twice the cost of building a new single family house. Land is just super expensive in the five boroughs.
DH and I looked in Rockland, and even here some of the land is extremely expensive. We just saw a .25 acre lot for $250K, which is about as much as a cost of a manufactured 2,000 sq ft house. If you are looking to save money on building wherever you are, you may want to consider manufactured homes. Once finished, they look the same as any other built home, and they are much stronger and better built, because most of the work is done by the machines.
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The answer on this, like most things, is: it depends.
It depends on the home you build - it depends on the area you build.
For us, after looking at all houses on the market we couldn't find exactly what we wanted - we are not looking for a 'starter' home - we are experienced home owners.
Sure we could have bought a house 20-30% less than our custom build but then we would have needed/wanted to do upgrades/additions to make it 'exactly' what we wanted - so why go through that headache (if you don't have to).
Also keep in mind - if you are not able to afford a house in the neighborhood of your choice then chances are you won't be able to afford building a house in the neighborhood of your choice.
Most developments/ lots have restrictive covenants that state what size/style of house is allowed to be built on said land. Such as ...if a 2 story then main floor must be at least 1500 sf + 2000 sf upper level (as an example) + the material used for the home might be listed (for example, many require x % of brick/stone) as well as required number of garages (here in IA most require 3 car at least).
It often times isn't as easy as buying a piece of land and then just building as small/cheap of a home as you want. Most neighborhoods/developments want to protect the home value of the surrounding homes - so you coming in and building a smaller/cheaper home compared to the others can bring down the value of the surrounding homes and ultimately neighborhood. So unless home values have sky rocketed in your area (unlikely) then expect the build in your choice neighborhood to be at least as much if not more than the homes currently on the market in said neighborhood.
Yup - definitely depends.
I think people probably break even in our neighborhood (maybe even make a little something) -- 1/4 acre lots go for around $500-550K. Construction costs probably average $200-250/sq ft -- so figure $500-700K for the build. The house is usually worth $1.1-1.5 million upon completion.
The real challenge is getting the money to finance something like this.
It was less expensive for us, but only because we found a neighborhood that was closing out the last few homes.
Generally in my area the price per square foot costs more in new construction than for existing homes.