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Cost for materials and labor to turn those materials into a house: $80 to $120 a square foot. If you want to build a small 1,000 square foot home we are talking $80,000 to $120,000 on the low side. Realize that many homes can cost much more to build. My 53 year old home with no updates would sell for $276 a square foot. A new home in our area would be about 1,800 on the small side and cost around $600,000 or $333.34 a square foot.
Cost of land to build the house on: I have seen lots that sell from as little as $5,000 and on up into the millions. Just depends where you plan on putting that home.
Your builder is going to want to make some money. You can tack on another 10 to 20% of the build cost.
City fees depends where you live. In my city it depends on the size of the build. A friend added on 2,200 square feet and the city charged him just over $10,000 before he did a single thing.
He also had to get approved plans and the cost to have someone draw that up cost about $160 an hour. Maybe you can find someone that can do it for less.
Inspection fees to build. This may be covered in the city fee but it depends on your city.
Still lets look at the cost of the materials and labot since I guess you may be able to find a place that would allow you to just build a home with out fees, plans, or a builder. So we are still talking $80,000 to $120,000. I know of cars that cost more than that but i am not able to pay for those kind of cars. Maybe you are so inclined.
Real Estate is also what drives up the cost of a house.
Being a property developer and builder, on average the typical home costs 300k-500k to build (the actual construction of the home), while the property is worth that same amount if not more. This results in the huge price you're paying for the property. Average size home is from 3,500 sqft to 5,500 sqft on a lot from 5,000 sqft to 8,000 sqft.
The actual construction costs peanuts in comparison to the land value.
Sure, in the places, homes cost next to nothing (under 500k), all that means is that you got more money to spend while most likely living in a fairly decent home (less inflation from real estate value).
Cars do cost quite a bit if you're can afford a 200K+ vehicle which actually have some human work put into it. A typical car (say Ford) should not cost as much as a Bentley. Huge difference in quality, craftsmanship, and the quantity being produced.
Cars make their profit over the thousands or millions being sold, homes are profitable on every single home sold, or after a several units if it's a townhouse or a condo.
May be a better comparison would be prefab homes rolling out on assembly lines in a factory. Why can’t we make one every 60 seconds and would, or should, they still cost more than a modern car, ignoring the land value?
May be a better comparison would be prefab homes rolling out on assembly lines in a factory. Why can’t we make one every 60 seconds and would, or should, they still cost more than a modern car, ignoring the land value?
do you really think there is a market for 16 million new homes every year? and where are you going to get all the land that will be needed to build that many homes each year? its not like the auto industry where 16 million new cars are created, and 16 million hit the junkyards and are ultimately crushed.
My 19-inch flat-screen TV cost less than the list -price for a Wilson official NFL game football. My Dell laptop cost about 20% more. I can replace the remote for my TV or buy an optical mouse or a cellphone with camera cheaper than a plastic-handled back scrubber to use in the shower or an undershirt at WaMart.
May be I should have said houses shouldn’t cost as much as they do. Just compare what goes into each.
All that does is remove all doubt that you have any idea what so ever about what goes into building a decent house. Go buy one for $100 in Detroit if you want one cheaper than a car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyRider
You don’t need an “engineer”. There are hundreds of thousands of home plans with all calculations worked out online which won’t cost you a dime. You can be your own general contractor and build one from scratch. Now, show me how I can build a Hemi on my own. You can argue that the market place determines the price and I won’t argue with that. I am looking at it purely from the investment, skills and technology. You might ridicule the topic but didn’t the same thinking started the Levittowns in the 50s? Somebody said it shouldn’t cost someone 30 years of his life to pay off a home.
Are you kidding? You don't need to be an engineer to build a car either. Get a PAW catalog and buy every part you need to assemble your hemi, it isn't that hard and can be done in your living room. It's a whole lot easier to assemble an engine than it is to build a house, or even a garage. You can mail order all the parts to build an entire car if you want to.
This thread brings to mind one time when conversing with a friend of mine about the local phenomena of new, expensive luxury cars often found parked in front of residences in lower-class neighborhoods that were barely standing. His reply will always stay with me:
"You can live in a car, but you can't drive no house!"
All that does is remove all doubt that you have any idea what so ever about what goes into building a decent house. Go buy one for $100 in Detroit if you want one cheaper than a car.
Even then, it's probably still worth more than most cars in salvaged material.
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