Is it cheaper to build or buy a house....in California ? (for sale, real estate)

[LiptonGuy]

Could someone build a house in California, cheaper than it would be to buy ?

If someone can build a nice house in other parts of the country for $200K, why couldn't someone build a house for around the same price, in California ?

[EscapeCalifornia]

What do you expect to pay for the land?

[LiptonGuy]

I'm not sure how much land costs, in that part of the country.

The original question, is just a hypothetical. Would it be cheaper to build.

Can someone buy a track of land for $40k to 60K? How much will an empty lot, next to someone's house go for ? When someone's house burns down, maybe they don't always rebuild. Maybe they take the money & leave town. The house gets torn down....thus available lot.

What if someone figured out a way to purchase an empty LOT, at a bargain price ? Maybe it would be cheaper to build.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by LiptonGuy

I'm not sure how much land costs, in that part of the country.

The original question, is just a hypothetical. Would it be cheaper to build.

Can someone buy a track of land for $40k to 60K? How much will an empty lot, next to someone's house go for ? When someone's house burns down, maybe they don't always rebuild. Maybe they take the money & leave town. The house gets torn down....thus available lot.

What if someone figured out a way to purchase an empty LOT, at a bargain price ? Maybe it would be cheaper to build.

I have no idea what it really costs to build a house but being California, I'm sure there's lots of expensive red tape to get through so its probably pretty expensive. Here's a couple of things to put the numbers in perspective:

I have a 2 bedroom house that cost over $550k. Is my house worth $550k? Hardly. Its the land that has value. My homeowner's policy covers the house itself for $250k, so I assume that's maximum expected cost to replace the house. That doesn't cover the contents of course and probably doesn't cover the foundation or buried utilities which are unlikely to be damaged even in a complete burn down.

My last tax bill assessed my house at $564k. They allocate that as $476k for the land and $87k for the house.

I'm not sure where in California you'd actually find a piece of dirt for $40-60k, but I'll guarantee you it'll be small, unimproved, in the middle of nowhere, and possibly unbuildable.

[midnightbirdgirl]

Originally Posted by LiptonGuy

I'm not sure how much land costs, in that part of the country.

The original question, is just a hypothetical. Would it be cheaper to build.

Can someone buy a track of land for $40k to 60K? How much will an empty lot, next to someone's house go for ? When someone's house burns down, maybe they don't always rebuild. Maybe they take the money & leave town. The house gets torn down....thus available lot.

What if someone figured out a way to purchase an empty LOT, at a bargain price ? Maybe it would be cheaper to build.

There is land in CA. But I don't know where you would find land that cheap.
And construction costs are pretty high here. I can't imagine it would be less expensive to build.
MBG

[kettlepot]

In Modoc County you could get several acres for 40k to 60k, but that's not the 'California' you're probably thinking of.

In one of the coastal counties a 5000 square foot improved and permitted lot probably comes in at a minimum of 200k. But that's just a guess.

[canibeyou]

If you do all the work yourself... sure, it'll be cheaper. We happen to live in an area where land is abundant and $60k can get you a pretty nice chunk of land (No, we're no longer reside in LA County, thank goodness! But we're still in So. California). But if you're looking to buy the land and then pay a bunch of different people to build you a house... I'd say, it's gonna be even, if not the same as buying already built.

Then again, with housing sales/ building kinda leveling out, contractors might not be asking the same riduculous prices they once where when they were in "high demand".

[NYSD1995]

Mostly when you are looking at land you are either looking at raw acreage or lots in a to-be subdivision. You can get large unimproved acreage in parts of rural norcal for well under 100k and unimproved small lots for under 50k. However without water, sewer, electric and phone you are looking at a fairly nebulous idea of what that land will cost to be inhabitable. Land with services is worth a lot more.

Northern California Land - Siskiyou County Properties (http://www.remaxheritageproperties-yrk-ca.com/land.html - broken link)
Siskiyou Real Estate - Northern California Land for Sale

Originally Posted by LiptonGuy

I'm not sure how much land costs, in that part of the country.

The original question, is just a hypothetical. Would it be cheaper to build.

Can someone buy a track of land for $40k to 60K? How much will an empty lot, next to someone's house go for ? When someone's house burns down, maybe they don't always rebuild. Maybe they take the money & leave town. The house gets torn down....thus available lot.

What if someone figured out a way to purchase an empty LOT, at a bargain price ? Maybe it would be cheaper to build.

[canibeyou]

Don't need to go clear into No.Cal to find cheap lots for great prices. The Southern most tip of Kern County is overflowing with them. Water and eletrical already on site. If you don't mind a 1.5 hour commute into LA....

[Roaddog]

Even cheap land will be expensive, you can sub contrct a house and it will be cheaper but if $200,000 is your goal I doubt it unless you were going to build it yourself.