Square Foot Pricing for Single Family Homes

[Gregory Clauson]

Hey Everyone! Looking at a few deals that are complete tear downs in the northeast and I am curious what everyone is figuring for square foot costs on a new single family home excluding acquisitions? 

[Eric F.]

This isn't want a lot of people want to hear, but, trying to use the price per SF to build metric can get you in a lot of trouble unless you are very familiar with current and local construction prices. 

As a builder (built and closed 500+ homes), if you use "price per SF" as a metric you'll get burned. Quick example:

3000 SF duplex (1500 a side)

3000 SF SFH

Building double the amount of bathrooms/kitchens which you would be doing in a duplex vs a SFH would drastically increase the cost per SF.

What kind of soil/grade? I have poured a foundation for a 2000 SF house for 11k and one for 120k. They were a 5 minute drive from each other. 

Local areas really matter, but if you want to be safe- link up with someone who really knows construction and they can give you a rough estimate on what you are trying to build on a particular lot. 

Anything else as "price per SF" would be similar to making the mistake of taking Comps beach front in california and using that price per foot for comps an hour inland in california. 

Now that being said I'll answer your question- on the low end I've been at $78 a foot North of Austin ($60 in Houston) all the way up to $200 plus in infill Austin. Currently infill in Austin I am underwriting everything with $140 a foot then I have a checklist that can swing that price any which way (looking at soil, topography, what kind of project we are buildling, etc.).