Price per sq ft for new construction?

[Jose Leal]

Hi everyone, 

Looking to build a multiple duplexes on infill lots in the houston area. What can I expect for price per sqft for new construction?

Ive talked to a few folks currently building but ive heard ranges from $100-$125. My guess would be its a "you get what you pay for" situation.

Can anyone shed some light with recent experiences?

[Robert Ellis]

houston is probably similar pricing to Columbus Ohio but way worse zoning laws. we take 20% on top as a GC and a guaranteed fee agreement. our contracted new construction projects recently:

Single family new build spec home: 1513 square feet with 3 beds 2.5 baths 1 car attached $275000 approx $182 a square foot if calculated using heated square feet which means our cost is $145 a square foot. 

3 unit / triplex new construction: 2008 square feet 2 bedrooms 1 bath per unit or total 6 bedrooms 3 bathrooms with 3 off street parking spaces. contracted build cost $395,000. no garage on this and better economies of scale with shared roof, slab, etc. $192 a square foot hard cost with our cost running approximately $157 a square foot. 

More of a general trend, when we started we asked the same question. how low can I get it? if there is someone who can build at a lower price in Columbus Ohio than us (my partner and I with both 10+ years of construction experience and I bid on a national scale) why not reach out and try. So we reached out to 80 builders who build at least 1 single family home. What we found was only one other person contracted under $200 per square foot for clients and they also built within the city of columbus. the numbers have a much higher premium the closer you get to downtown. if you can't get the numbers to work my recommendation would be to get closer to downtown. we do build to rent development and single family home development and every line item is broken out. on the triples we have to build exterior staircases etc there are some things you can't really understand unless you build a lot. 

hope that helps but no one is going to build you for 110 a square foot. the lowest cost homes in our market at cost without a profit barely dip into 140 a square and we are in one of the cheapest construction markets and states in the country. 

I recently bid a 5 unit and the pricing scale that was used with 3 different national estimators we use as consultants was so low they warned us but we are comfortable with our market and costs.