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It’s much more expensive to build homes in the western US due to topography, land constraints etc… even rural places that would be considered “in the middle of nowhere” are incredibly expensive.
Seattle also has an urban growth boundary to prevent further sprawling into the Cascades range. Places like Texas don’t but they also have very little public land and eventually the Texas Triangle is going to be one metro area. There’s something to be said about not paving every acre of land into a strip mall and housing subdivision with the same five chain stores every other mile.
It’s much more expensive to build homes in the western US due to topography, land constraints etc… even rural places that would be considered “in the middle of nowhere” are incredibly expensive.
Believe it or not, data doesn't fully support that.
You have to consider cost of labor, and cost of land in many of the East Coast locales.
California, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois are the most expensive States to build in (not including Hawaii and Alaska).
Massachusetts and Illinois are standouts, as they have the highest labor costs of any State... 50-100% more than the cheapest States to build a home.
What used to be a 3x rule in these expensive markets has become a 4x rule. Meaning, if you bought land for $400k, you needed the sale to be $1.2M. Now, if you buy land for $400k, you need the sale to be closer to $1.6M. That's the primary reason why new builds in "Tier 2" towns are $1.6M+. In Tier 1 towns, like a Wellesley or a Winnetka or a Scarsdale, you can expect closer to $3M+, as land starts at about $750k.
Believe it or not, data doesn't fully support that.
You have to consider cost of labor, and cost of land in many of the East Coast locales.
California, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois are the most expensive States to build in (not including Hawaii and Alaska).
Massachusetts and Illinois are standouts, as they have the highest labor costs of any State... 50-100% more than the cheapest States to build a home.
What used to be a 3x rule in these expensive markets has become a 4x rule. Meaning, if you bought land for $400k, you needed the sale to be $1.2M. Now, if you buy land for $400k, you need the sale to be closer to $1.6M. That's the primary reason why new builds in "Tier 2" towns are $1.6M+. In Tier 1 towns, like a Wellesley or a Winnetka or a Scarsdale, you can expect closer to $3M+, as land starts at about $750k.
California, Alaska, Washington State are on that list for high labor costs.
Have you even looked at homes in rural areas in western states vs. most states East of the Rockies? The rural eastern areas are dirt cheap compared to small towns out west.
I doubt there are many comparable small population cities back east as expensive as places like Bozeman, Bend, Leavenworth, Hood River etc....brand new 2500 square foot home will easily cost you 800k - 1 million right now. Of course those are very desirable locations. But as a general rule even small podunk towns out west majority of the time are much more expensive than their east coast counterparts .
Just pointing out that you can be 200 miles from no where and still pay and an arm and a leg in most Western States. Rural Illinois and much of upstate NY is dirt cheap in comparison.
California, Alaska, Washington State are on that list for high labor costs.
Have you even looked at homes in rural areas in western states vs. most states East of the Rockies? The rural eastern areas are dirt cheap compared to small towns out west.
I doubt there are many comparable small population cities back east as expensive as places like Bozeman, Bend, Leavenworth, Hood River etc....brand new 2500 square foot home will easily cost you 800k - 1 million right now. Of course those are very desirable locations. But as a general rule even small podunk towns out west majority of the time are much more expensive than their east coast counterparts .
Just pointing out that you can be 200 miles from no where and still pay and an arm and a leg in most Western States. Rural Illinois and much of upstate NY is dirt cheap in comparison.
I was just looking at this from a State perspective. It's pretty evenly distributed between East Coast and West Coast, with Illinois being the lone exception.
I have no doubt that rural Oregon is more expensive to build than rural Vermont.
FYI - Washington and California, from a labor cost perspective, are less than Illinois, Massachusetts and Jersey.
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