Current per sf residential building cost in Los Angeles County

5 years ago

Any recent experience on per s.f. Residential cost for San Gabriel Valley (Los Angeles County)? New build/major remodel one story, Spanish style design with tile roof

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Charles Ross Homes

5 years ago

Cost/SF is a metric used by appraisers and Realtors attempting to value a home based on sales data for similar homes recently sold in the same market. It's a lousy metric, but it's simple and so it gets used for their simple comparisons.

Estimating anything on a cost/SF basis gets builders, architects and home buyers in trouble. The only thing we purchase by the SF is flooring materials and even then, the installed cost/SF is affected by a number of variables such as orientation, material or roll width, pattern, type of substrate, etc.

The best way to infer the likely cost to build the home you have in mind is to tour similar homes that are under construction or recently completed in the same area and ask the builder about the cost difference to construct it on your building site.

The experience shared by kudzu9 illustrates why its' a good idea to have your builder involved early in the design process. I highly recommend it.

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Comments (8)

kudzu9
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Figures are highly dependent on the lot, the level of quality, and the actual design features. If you Google this question, you'll probably see estimates in the range of $150-500/sqft.

Even with detailed architectural plans, you don't know until the bids come in. I have friends last year who had about a $1M budget for a new home out West and their architect came in with a very nice plan. Unfortunately, the lowest bid they got was $2.5M so they've had to scrap that and start over.

I'm not trying to discourage you or be unhelpful, but I want to caution you about making a decision based on what you learn here.
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Mark Bischak, Architect
5 years ago
Ask someone in Los Angeles County. Square footage costs are usually a shot in the dark anyway.
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boy i'll second that, jeffinmonterey. we waited over 6 months for our city to approve our plans and grant us the honor of a permit. they also put us into the design review fasttrack (which dinged us 1800 bucks) all because they couldn't visualize and, ostensibly, are biased against modern design. need to keep the mayberry aesthetic up you know. luckily our architect really pushed us into doing a model early on so when we plunked that down on the table during the design review meeting, the two bluehairs looked back and forth between their bi-focals and said "you know, this doesn't look anything like your drawings." they were wrong, though, it did. anyway, sorry for the rant. we interviewed 4 architects. three i found on the AIASF website and one was a friend of a friend who is a one woman operation in the city. we wound up going with her because we liked her vision and her personality. all four architects came to our house to scope things out and wound up staying between 1 to 2 hours. we did pay a retainer to get things going with the one we chose. she works on a percentage basis, 12% - 15% of the finished price tag. we never felt completely comfortable with that so we agreed to pass the baton after her initial drawings were complete. they were actually very detailed. my husband and i felt we didn't need so much hand holding through to the end and we have brought her in to tweak some things along the way. for that we pay her an hourly fee. we have had some stumbling points when things moved from her to the contractor's draftsman but our contractor is great at working these things out as we progress. it's been about 5 weeks since they kicked us out to start and the framers are really buzzing along. so far i'm quite happy. i'll happily pass on names and numbers if you'd like to contact me directly.
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I think it's totally normal to be curious about building costs around the country/world, knowing that it varies WIDELY. I'm in Dallas and in my neighborhood, 15 minutes from downtown, lots are around $300K for a .5 acres. Move just 0.5-1 mile to the next neighborhood and the lots jump to $600-$800K for a .5 acre lot. Move just 2 miles further east and a lot is about $20K (low income area). Try to buy a lot with a teardown house on it in Highland Park, which is about 8 miles NW of where I live and it will cost you > $1M. Buy a lot through a builder in the northern suburbs and you're looking at about $50K-$100K. Cost to build varies widely. Lots of spec home builders in the area and you'll get something between $100/sq. ft to $200/sq. ft for generic house plan, basic finishes on a small lot (< .25 acres). Go to the more affluent neighborhoods where of top of the line custom homes are being built, it's $300+/sq. ft. We built a fully custom home for ~$110/sq. foot but we were the GC's and we did a fair amount of DIY (i.e. painting cabinets, painting interior walls, installing trim, hardwood floor finish, interior hardware install, back porch concrete and flagstone, foundation stonework, etc). All in with no DIY at all, it would have been $250+/sq. ft. Our finish out was mid to high end. Our permit was about $10K. And this does not include landscaping. So all of this to say, that there is no "norm" just in my area. It's crazy how different costs are depending on what block you live on.
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Comments (without reading anyone else's) Kitchen: looks fine except that wall of squares and rectangles. I am glad no subway, though I would have wanted something warmer for the tile color. Island and floor are stunning. I like the cabinet pulls. Bath: Again, happy with no subway. I could do with a lot less gray, and I think the shower tiling is way too busy. That mirror is cool. Back yard: Too small for the price this is offered at, but this is San Fran after all. For what they have, they did a nice job. Exterior: I'd like to see a light tan or beige color to that stucco. Just to keep it less industrial looking. Front entryway: That could grow on me. Much of the interior: WAY WAY too open for me. Too much noise bouncing around. Spend some moolah on some properly-placed walls! I'm with you, Lars! Bath sink area: I like the marble or granite they used, and the fixtures -, the door is not me at all. Stairs going up: I like. I have to stop here and note that the dire lack of color on walls is truly disturbing, but nothing that can't be solved with several or more gallons of PAINT. Things were going good until bathroom image 32. That thing I'd replace within a week of purchase. Or was that a laundry room? Terribly vanilla for a high end home, or for any home. I like lots of balcony space. Hallway with all the doors: would have to see why all those doors, but I do like that they are wood-framed - adds some interest to the home.
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cpartist
5 years ago
Depends. Do you want basic carpet throughout, or site finished wood floors in an intricate pattern? Are you looking to put in prefab bath surrounds or are you looking to put in marble surrounds in a chevon pattern? Will the kitchen have formica counters or quartzite?

I could go on and on.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
5 years ago
There are too many factors involved in building costs. I designed $300,000 cottage for a client, his daughter got involved and it went up to $1.1 million.
PRO
Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
5 years ago
Start your research by viewing new homes in the area in your price range, talk to those builders, take note of the finishes in that price range.
chispa
5 years ago
Look on Redfin, find a house that was purchased in the last year, torn down and then sold as a spec new construction. This will give you a ballpark. There are no empty/raw lots in this area (yes, there are a few here and there) so most new construction involves tearing down an old house and the extra costs associated with that. Labor is not cheap here. The laborers might not be making much, but the boss will bill you at the full going rate and make a pretty decent living.

I just paid $50K in labor only to gut and remodel a kitchen and $25K for a small bathroom, again, labor only.

A few years ago I paid $400/sq.ft to gut and remodel a master bath, evenly split between labor and high end materials.
PRO
Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
5 years ago
What Chispa said. I did this on Zillow. Tear downs ranged from $400-700K in San Gabrial, while new homes started about $1.35 for 3000 sf and up from there.

Current per sf residential building cost in Los Angeles County

Charles Ross Homes

Comments (8)

kudzu9

Mark Bischak, Architect

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cpartist

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