This thought came to mind when I was reading through the thread where the guy is in with a price way over the architect’s figure.
I am getting a pretty good view of how pricing can vary by region because I am working with half a dozen or so people who are building the very same house in various parts of the country. Same 32 page planset, similar specs, etc.
It is a Sarah Susanka plan, originally done for private clients in Stowe, VT, then built as a showhouse on the parking lot outside the Las Vegas convention center for the ’04 Builders show (NAHB.)
Built with very little variation at all, mainly because the plan is so tightly orchestrated and is not readily changed, I am hearing about builder pricing where the low is varying from the high by over $100 per square foot.
In my little market, the very same framing contractor who can command between $10 and $20 psf in a few towns, cannot get more than $6 or $7 psf when he frames in his own back yard.
The house I live in, another Susanka plan, which cost me almost $175 psf to build in ’00-’01, and that is my cost as owner-builder, not a builder’s selling price, was built for under $100, well under $100 psf, in southern Tennessee just last year.
My point is that discussions of cost and price on this forum are meaningless, without all the facts about local conditions, market pricing, levels of competion, wages, climate, and more.
Replies
Right.
Professional Builder (NAHB Publication) has done articles, using several builders across the country. They ask builders to provide a cost per SF for the same house and same specs. If I remenber correctly, comparrisions were fair being cost to build not to include land and other regional variables. Your point is also their conclusion.
I am from Memphis, living in TX, and I love Tennesse. Seems we also have have a mutual interest in the work and plans of Sarah Susanka. I have several of her books, and am inspired, about her plans being built, to find her and perhaps her plan offerings on the internet.
>>My point is that discussions of cost and price on this forum are meaningless, without all the facts about local conditions, market pricing, levels of competion, wages, climate, and more.
That point much covers it with dirt Stinger. The same is true even in localized situations. For example: Not 20 miles from me, there was a house a few years ago that had well over $300K in excavation and foundation alone. It was a modest size house and nice but the fact that it was built on a rock cliff at a ski resort up in the mountains made it cost over $350 per sq. ft. Same house in the valley probably would get built for under $200 per sq. ft.
You just have to look at each and every job seperately and consider all the factors that will make up the project.
kcoyner