If things are fairly slow like most areas, that would explain the 350/s.f. which is excellent for s.b. Coastal areas average 400-450 and up depending on the footprint. In our build area of the sierras, it's been 450/s.f. for quite some time even when things slow. Here in the mojave desert where we are living it averages 250/s.f.

Im told in la jolla, they can get 850/s.f for complex homes on the water.Hooya!

Wow! It is crazy how much the cost of construction varies depending on location.

We did have an architect tell us that high end construction runs at about $500 a square foot in SB - but I thought that was nuts.

My budget is really demanding a cost per square foot around $300. Hopefully I can find someone when I send the project out to bid to build for around that number. If not, I better start scaling the project back!

We are considering trying to get a builder from one of the surrounding areas if that would help meet our budget.

Thanks for the input Sierra! Your post helped me realize that I may need to scale my square footage back a bit.

Craig and Joanie

Are you guys including land costs in the above $/sf or is it just for the build?

Point being, if you are including land cost in the above numbers cutting your square footage "back a bit" is not going to reduce/save you much money.

In the Raleigh, NC area mid-to-3/4 high-end custom homes in the 4,000 sq ft area w/ 3-car garage run around $175 to $200 per sq ft including the lot with lots running typically from $100,000 to $150,000. That means the build portion of the cost is typically in the $140 to $175 per square foot range.

For a high-end custom home $200 & above per sq ft is not unusual for the build portion.

Have you thought about doing an owner builder? You should be able to do the house under $300/ft

I spent some time a couple years ago looking at doing some developments in California, and passed. There is SOOO much more involved in the cost than simply looking at what other's are paying, craig. California has THE longest liability period in the country, costs are higher than for any other builders, you have tons of environmental issues that people in, for instance, Raleigh do not have to deal with, and you have both higher insurance, labor, and liability costs than any other area.

I'm going to tell you that you do NOT want to cheap out on a good GC/builder, on materials, or on techniques. Either make the home small enough to fit the budget, or simply do not build. Yes; that's my suggestion; if you can't afford the basic quality which IS $300-350; don't do it. It will be nothing but headaches, either now, or in the future, or you'll wind up with a house with half-way decent structure that looks like a rental.

The s.f. quotes i gave did not include land. One big reason people are fleeing from ca.

Great advise from jasonmi7!

oh my....here in IL $200 per skf, can get you pretty much everything you want.
let the GC do the "shell" for you(up to drywall), and hire rest of the subs yourself. saves you 20% or more.(or hire us from here,for a interior finishing,and save even more...:)))

Hi Craig and Joanie - we're building something similar in size in the SF Bay Area - 2800 sq ft house plus a 760 sq ft garage. Cost estimates are running about $300/sq ft (including the garage), though I've been warned to expect $350. This is for a fully custom, but not over-the-top home (semi-custom cabinets, marble/concrete countertops, plank wood flooring, approx $15/sq ft avg cost for tile (just materials cost)). Sounds like you're right on track!

Best of luck,

gerberadaisy

Want to move to TN? I have a nrand new house on almost 50 acres for sale! Seriuosly.. we moved back to FL and are building and the cost is so much higher. We built this almost 3000 sq. ft home with basement for under $150.00 per sq. foot (land, barn, landscaping extra)

Here is a link that might be useful: Custom Home for under $150 per sq ft!

A lot of ca. retiress are heading to places like tennesee. I dont know about now and the current market, but they were selling their homes for a pretty penny, going back to tenn. and plunking down cash on a nice home and land and still have a nice cushion for retirement. Retirees and middle class are leaving w/ the middle class tired of living payday to payday w/ the biggest part of their pay going to a high house payment. Those that are staying and have lived in high priced city areas are moving to the outskirts. An example is sacramento where generation farmers are selling their land to developers who build a little more reasonable priced home, so folks are willing to make the commute into the city, but live on the outskirts. Again, i dont know hoe it's going w/ the current declining market. Retirees and middle class are generally leaving and at the risk of sounding racist, which i am not, hispanics coming into ca. are what is keeping the population on the rise and are now the majority of the states populous.

ziplip - can you tell me what part of IL you are referring to? I'm in the Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Clarendon Hills area. Looking to build 3000 sq ft (BTW, my total sq feet is limited by my 1/4 acre lot size). Already paid $500k for the land and don't want to spend more than $500k for the house, but I'd like an all brick/stone house which might not be feasible.

funny, my exwife and her husband have built several homes for around 35.00 a sq ft, 10X less than Cali! and they build nice homes to sell for around 50-60 per sq ft.

Some friends were looking to move back to their hometown of san antonio when they saw houses advertised for 45.00/s.f. He went back to make a deposit only to discover you got a shell of a house, not even insulated or wallboard.

I seriously question a house for 50- 60 sf anywhere. How do they make a living, and what is the quality of the home?

I am build in rural north easter california. We had our plans bid by gc's and most of them averaged around $250-300 sqft. We had bids go into the $450 range. Keep in mind, I am not in an urban area and far away (3+ hours)from any major cities (Sacramento and Reno).

We are acting as owner builder, having some subs and hourly carpenters, but doing much of the work ourselves. We hope to have the house done for around $115-120 sqft, not including the land.

The lumber package on my house costs around $40/sqft. We have quite abit of speciality custom order lumber.

I do have good friends who build spec homes (or a spec home) when they find the right deal on property, they build for around $85-90 sqft in my area. They have built 5-6 of them and have the system down. They are also all family and are carpenters (working on my build), engineers, electrictians, and now two are gc's.

All the information supplied is very helpful and we appreciate it! This forum is a great tool to help us understand the process and costs of building. We are adjusting our square footage down a bit to allow for a build somewhere between $300 and $350 per square foot.

Thank you,

Craig and Joanie

Around here, you can build a mid to high end home for $70 sq ft. No quality issues, things just cost less here and b/c of the economy of the area, builders can't charge as much as if they were in some of the areas you are talking about. Our builder is considered "high" at cost plus 12%. I would say the average home around here is built for $60-$65 a sq ft.

I guess it depends on what you call a "high" end home for $70/ft. I don't see how that is possible. Even if your labor is a lot less your material costs cannot be that much different from CA.

We're building in the SF East Bay and our costs are coming in at $250-$275/ft. for 7800 ft. of conditioned living area (but we also have 3800 ft. of garages and 3000 ft. of covered patios, I just don't know how to calculate these separately). I'd say it's pretty high-end, a single-story with a raised foundation, real clay tile roof, wood windows and french doors, travertine and hardwood floors, Lacanche range, Gaggenau steam oven, TOTO toilets and so on.

I think by taking complete control over our budget and checkbook, it enables us to be involved in where our dollars are being spent. IMHO, the GC doesn't really have the time to find the "best deals" and will probably use his friends in the trade whenever possible, without even caring much how their prices compare. For example, one grading/excavation bid came in at SEVEN TIMES the amount we ended up paying...go figure!

I never realized how much the prices can differ for just about anything, so if you're not careful and don't research things enough yourself, these things can quickly add up and be the difference between $250 and $350 ft.

Good luck to you in your build, craigandjoanie!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Home Building Blog

maj1k , do you have plans allready?Do you know the finishes/fixtures/cabinets you want in your home? If the plans are not to complicated and lot has all utilities and no surprises then brick/stone,3000skf house for a 500 k is realistic.Anythere in Il.

What an inspiring build! Thank you for the information Vineyard. It looks like you are accomplishing quite a bit at a very reasonable price per square foot. After reading your blog over the last half hour I am really impressed. It seems that you have found a good GC and a good arrangement. A flat fee for your GC and the ability to pick the subs appears to be a great way to go.

Does your figure of $275/ft include the GC's flat fee or just the cost of the build?

Did your builder handle your permitting with the county?

How did your designer base their compensation?

Any regrets going with a designer rather than an architect?

We are quite happy to have found your blog, it truly is a help to us. We will be watching your progress and wish you the best.

Thank you for sharing,

Craig and Joanie

Thanks, craigandjoanie! I do need to update my blog, it seems that lately I haven't had the time to actually "write" anything...it's been hard enough to keep posting photos! :) For us, the GC flat fee works because we want to pay him for his work performed, not based on how much we decide to spend on the house. The ability to pick subs is saving us a lot of money; somehow it seems that the GC's subs always come in with the highest bid!

*Yes, the $275/ft. includes the GC's flat fee, plus the cost of his insurance policy. It also includes the mandatory contingency reserve (WaMu).

Note: when our GC first came up with a cost breakdown for us (to obtain the construction loan), I cried when he came in at $385/ft. (I thought we'd have to go back to the drawing board!) Luckily, DH convinced me that his numbers were way out of wack, so he did his own research and bidding and now we're at $275/ft. That's pretty much when we knew we had to take control of the project for it to even become a reality. So he's handling all of the contractor bidding and I'm handling all the shopping (it's working out great so far!)

*No, our GC pretty much started once the permits were issued...wait, no actually, he went on vacation the day our permit was issued and came back after the foundation was poured. DH used to be in the trades years ago and we had a wonderful foundation contractor, so it wasn't a big deal that the GC wasn't there after all.

*Our designer charged us per square foot and it was very reasonable; it also included the engineering and Title 24 calculations.

*It's hard to say because we've not had any experience with an architect...but the most important thing to us was the freedom to use "our" conceptual floorplan, which I actually drew up myself in the beginning. I wasn't willing to let any designer/architect completely take control and tell me what my new home would be like! ;) Only complaints about our designer are punctuality and communication (for him, a 3-5+ business day response time to a telephone call was the norm).

Anyway, thank you again and feel free to ask any more questions you may have, as I'm sure they'll come up! :)

Aloha,
Leilani

* Craig and Joanie

We're hoping to start our build this spring in Sacramento. My preliminary estimate is $125/sf for 5200sf (construction cost only - no GC, no land, no permit/school fees, or designer/architect costs) based on OBing it ourselves with subs - I'm not planning on doing anything other than cleanup. The house will be around 'mid'-end: 2x6 ext framing, spanish concrete tile roof, stucco exterior, slab on grade, vinyl low-E windows and fiberglass ext doors. I found the link below helpful with cost estimating (the cost came in the same as my estimate, but with GC, permit, fees and plan costs). I am getting 3 bids from GCs (builders) to see if my numbers are good (I'll post the numbers once I get them)

http://building-cost.net/

* Leilani

Great house so far, thanks for the link to WaMu (I told Mitzie I found her through your site - hopefully she can help us). On your team list - for the subs that are done, can you indicate if you would recommend them again? If that's not possible - would you be willing to email your recommendations to me?

Thanks

Long

Long, thank you and I hope Mitzie can help you too (she's been awesome to work with!) Being in the industry, I've come across others who do construction loans, but Mitzie's experience, knowledge and the ability to get it done makes her my top pick.

As far as subcontractor recommendations, that's easy - I can recommend all subs that are done with the exception of the framing contractor we terminated, Pat Carroll Construction of Rocklin, California. I've already filed a complaint against him with the CSLB (Contractors State Licensing Board).

Good luck and feel free to ask me about anything else that comes up!

Leilani

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Team

I seriously question a house for 50- 60 sf anywhere. How do they make a living, and what is the quality of the home?

avg price of a NEW home in my area is $65.00 per sq ft. older homes sell in the area of as low as $20.00 to around $45.00 per sq ft. i have seen homes sell for less than 20k, of course the house and neighborhood are both run down in those cases.

my ex and her husband build their cheaply by doing alot of the labor themselves. he owns his own HVAC company and is a licensed electrian so that is 2 big costs they save on. her dad is a plumber, and she does all teh finish work and trim. basically they pay someone to excavate, pour teh foundation, frame, roof, and put up the exterior walls. after that they take over.

local pricing and ordinances have everything to do with home costs. i bet you 10 to 1 that material for 2 identical floorplans, one built here and one built in California, would be way different. the costs of material are higher out there, plus the stricter laws due to earthquakes/fire/etc mean a lot more and different material has to go in the house. then figure in the higher labor costs and the price difference for identical houses shoots thru the roof.

Good point, davidandkasie, about the variance in local pricing and ordinances. As longus' estimate of $125/sf does not include line items like permit/school fees, please be aware that these can really be higher than what you may think (at least for me, it was a total shocker how much my city charges to build there!) Our permit fees were $100k and the school fee was $13k, so those two things alone can seriously inflate the price per square foot. *ugh* I know...I really don't care for all these "invisible" costs!

Another thing: fire sprinklers. Those were a shocker to me as well, mostly because I never imagined that it could cost that much (plus it has to be installed by a certified company, you cannot DIY). If those are mandatory where you're building, well, lemme just say that our cost for those is $23k. *another ugh*

Leilani is right, for us the permit fees will be around $10k and the school fee is $25k (so it really depends on where you are - plus don't forget about well and septic) - that's why I just listed the construction cost only.

Just an FYI - one of the builders gave me a preliminary cost of $150-$160/sf.

Wow, leilani I am surprised your fire sprinklers cost that much! Mine will be costing us $3600, from engineering to install. We are only covering 2025 sqft, but still.

The invisible costs do add up.

Only CA would have building permits that costs 100 grand!!!!!
If you O/B here, Charlotte NC area, your cost would be around 75-80/sf with all 4 sides brick. Not including land. This would be subbing everything out. Med. upgrades for inside.

Wow, Leilani, I haven't kept up with your build, I'll have to look at your blog sometime....$100,000 for your permit?
I hope mine isn't that bad!

mikeyvon, we had another fire sprinkler bid that came in at $40k, so go figure! :)

robin0919 and juniork, just an FYI that the $100k includes everything the city requires, permit fees and what I like to call "junk fees" as well. The two biggies were $35k for low-income housing and an impervious surface fee of $0.70/sq. ft. The clincher is that they consider pavers to be impervious, so we had to pay for a lot of sq. ft. that we thought was "wrong" (driveway, auto court, courtyard, our entire rear loggia).

In the end, our bill with the city totaled $100k, which "technically" wasn't all for the "building permit" but it's what we needed to pay to start building, so that's why I classify it as "permit fees".

vine.....that's still unbelievable! I just finished a 4000sf house and the permit for house/well/septic fee came to less than 1500 bucks!! ONLY in CA.....it's like another world over there!........:(

"Another thing: fire sprinklers. Those were a shocker to me as well, mostly because I never imagined that it could cost that much (plus it has to be installed by a certified company, you cannot DIY)" Not true. I acted as GC building my house and installed the fire sprinklers myself -- I plumbed the whole house. An owner/builder can do anything/everything.

We're building a 5400 sq ft Spanish Revival/Montecito style home in Newport Beach area. Sq ft started out at about $275, but I actually think we're looking at about $375 & hoping we can keep it to that!

We have found that subs from other areas that are really feeling the building downturn - ie. Palm Springs/Desert areas, are much lower than local subs. Our builder submits 3 bids & we obviously choose the lowest, unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

Sorry I may be in the loop a bit late, but just wanted you to know there are those GC out here that can build for under $250 a sq. ft. Have 30 years experience and small overhead. Please email me if you have questions.
John Godkin

Can you please give me some contact Infos for those experienced GC please. I live in Orange County, ca.

This thread is over 8 years old and the last post was from 2011.

Wow, a thread from the dead...8 years ago!

vineyard, have you finished your home? I could not open your blog, but I will try again. cheers!!