Oh, you said 7500 sq.ft. lot, not house $1M is way high for that.

The size of the lot is not important, the size of the house is. Like I said before, if you act as the GC, you could easily get the price to $80-90 per sq.ft. of the house using "normal" materials inside.

 

I think $1 mill includes the you're a huge ****ing sucker fee.

 

The lot size means nothing. Think in terms of Sq ft of the actual house.

Here in the Chicago burbs you're looking at $150/ft for decent construction. Think $200 for upscale, and $275/ft for premium.

Do the math.

 

Unless you have a ton upfront its nearly impossible to get a construction loan and be your own contractor, but you can save a ton. I know a townhome builder who was selling his townhomes in the $200K range and said he was making about $90k on each one. (this was at the peak of the boom) You also need to know the staging and how to jump through all the hoops of inspections. Nice quality materials for a 2500 sqft house cost about $70k the most expensive part being kitchen cabinets. Then add labor, land, utility hookups and inspections. If you are your own contractor, labor is probably another $130k on top of the material.

This winter has sucked donkeys out here. Its been cold and sh*tty. But I am actually glad I don't live in Cali. Two years ago I built new, half acre wooded lot, suburbs 10 minutes from downtown, 2700 sq ft finished with another 1500 unfinished in the basement, three car gargage from a solid reputable builder for $353k.

I freeze my nuts off a few months per year, but get to have far more discretionary income, retire earlier and have fewer money worries.

Salaries are a little lower than Socal, but cost of living is far lower due to housing. But I always see the Texas guys bragging they get the lower cost of living and nice weather. And far better sports teams.

Go Timberwolves! And take The Wild with you!

 

Texas real estate is definitely cheap, especially if you live in outlying towns. I paid under $60 a sq. ft. for my house on a 2/3 acre lot with lots of trees, attached 2-car garage, and detached shed and carport. That's not in the middle of nowhere, that's less than a mile from the center of town in a fully developed, mature subdivision with 1/2 acre lots or bigger.

 

It does depend on where you are to a great deal. I am a licensed homebuilder in my state and in my county which borders the Gulf Of Mexico building cost are much higher than in counties 100 miles or so north. In CA. you have earthquake codes to build to while we have hurricane codes to contend with. As a custom builder I couldn't build as cheaply, nor would I want to, as a tract home builder that barely meets codes and doesn't take a great deal of personal pride in each and every home built. I have been non-active for the last few years because I could make as much money buying and selling lots as I could off building houses, and do it with fewer headaches. When I last talked with a couple of other builders that built the way I did they said they couldn't build for less than $110 to $120 sq. ft. at their cost. One told me that his cost was bumping $150 sq. ft.

While material costs may not be that different, the quality of what is used, labor, permits, inspections, etc. can make a big difference from location to location.

 

Like most of people already said, there are not enough information to say if $1mil is too much or not. The location of the lot makes big difference when it comes to demo and new foundation(like on the hills or not). As for building the actual house, it all depends on the materials you use. There are so many choices out there. For example, you can spend $5 per sq for the floors and you can also spend $20 per sq so you get the picture.

Yes, it's insane.. but someone out there is able to afford the cost of land plus house it self. I know it's not me...

 

That sounds high. Is there a big labor shortage there? I know in the some areas in CT that has driven up construction costs and delays.

Local requirements, water hookup, etc. could add to it, but if you assume the lot is paid for 100%, your say 2500 ft2 house at $200/ft2 should run about $500,000. $200/ft2 seems to me to be high cost, but not necessarily too high for a neighborhood with $1mil lots. What do houses sell for there?

If there are high inspection/hookup/foundation/etc expnenses and/or the contractor assumes you'd want a ~5000 ft2 house and done to the ~$200/ft2 level of quality, I guess $1mil for the house could be reasonable. Otherwise, find another contractor.

 

And my father looked into building his home for a while 5-10 years ago and seemed to think that, in a suburban areas where labor isn't in high demand, he could draw a rough layout for a standard home and contract it for about 10% more than he could purchase an equivalent new home for. The biggest cost he thought was the time to wait for it to be built.

5-10 years is a lot of time and you aren't looking in a comparable area, but regardless, if you're talking a standard home layout, I'd doubt it could cost more than a 10-20% premium to contract a custom home compared to purchasing an empty new one.

 

That must be a "your part of the country" thing because it's not a mortgage thing and it's not a Texas thing.