Have you investigated buying existing properties in the area? Building new custom costs a premium. 20â above existing homes cost would be a conservative number for a new custom build. I'm in a low cost area of the country and could get a basic home built for that, but not an upscale one, and certainly not a full custom build. It would be a cookie cutter with some individual personalization, but not much.

If you want to build economically, you look for a builder with a subdivision and plans that he has done before.

Also, planning to allocate 50â of your income towards just a mortgage is foolish budgeting. Houses have additional costs beyond just the mortgage. Insurance, maintenance, utilities, decorating, projects, etc. What if your fiancé wants to be a stay at home mom when you have kids? You could never live on one income. A more realistic budget would be to total all of those extra expenses beyond just the taxes that you are thinking about, and then plan for you mortgage and associated expenses totaling no more than 40-50% of your income. And even that high will leave you house poor. Your fiancée's whole check should go straight to savings. Especially if you are planning a family and one of you might want to take time away from the workforce while they are young. Not to mention paying yourself for retirement. It's never too early to start accounts for that.

At the top of your budget, $350,000 for a 2500 square foot house comes out at $140 per square foot. I have no idea what building costs are in NJ, but I've certainly heard that they are high. However, I'm in PA and have talked with several builders who have said they are usually between $130 and $175 per square foot with custom builds, depending on finishes. I'm actually looking at building at around $140 myself. I would agree with the previous poster, however, and recommend carefully examining your personal financial situation before moving forward. Not to say you shouldn't move forward, but you should certainly be sure that your fiancee definitely plans on working so you have two incomes. Otherwise, you may find yourself in a very bad situation.

Forgot to ask if you're planning on a finished basement. I can't exactly tell from your post. If so, I really doubt that it can be done within your budget. I'd do an unfinished basement and begin saving money to finish it down the road...

This post was edited by dreamer16 on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 13:34

Are you committed to staying at this property through retirement? If so, I would caution that all the decisions for the type of home you need have not been decided yet. How many children? Can you get pregnant? I planned to be well into running my own business by now with 2 kids. Instead I have been a stay at home mom for 8 years, and we decided 4 years ago that maybe we both wanted a third kid. The notion of being in one home for your life is very appealing to me, but don't be in such a rush to build if you "Can't" sell it.

Jason, these sorts of "ball park" quotations are worth less than what you paid for them. You won't know what all your costs are until the contractor is ready to sign an owner-contractor agreement. Even then, there may be other costs associated with property improvements, engineering and testing, building permits and fees, etc. And every experienced person will tell you that you should also budget 10%-20% for contingencies during construction--more if you are the sort that changes their mind a lot, makes changes during construction and/or upgrades things during construction.

I don't know what part of New Jersey you are in, but $80/SF is ridiculous and may simply be designed to get a novice owner to become attached to a particular builder, who may thereafter inform you that the actual house will be closer to $150/SF.

Do your homework and due diligence for all the work and costs involved for a custom home. A good place to begin, assuming you plan to finance the project through a construction loan and convert that to a permanent mortgage is to schedule discussions with several bank loan officers who can not only share costs in the area where you are interested, but also what it will cost (and what it will take) to qualify for a loan.

Good luck on your project.

You should really be investigating what costs your particular lot may have as that is a pretty big variable.

Are utilities there?
Is it septic or sewer. City water or well.
Is there significant clearing work or grading difficulties.
And Permits can be huge - or next to nothing. I built in 2 cities in the same state. One permit was $10k and one was $500.
Septic can be $30k or $5k or $20k or free to tie into sewer.

These variables can be serious money that the builder's may not be taking into account.

My last town required rainwater abatement - underground cistern that gutters went to. Not unusual nowadays. They also charge $1k per bedroom as a water impact fee.

I'm looking to build a 2,300 sq ft in Central NJ which requires septic and well. The cheapest estimate I have is for $460K. New construction costs in NJ are completely out of control like everything else in this state.

I just lost one house in bergen county nj. Then I found builder who build that house 8 year ago. He gave me email quote of $377,000 to build ditto (same) 3000 SF over existing foundation. This includes very large kitchen (mid range), granite tops, butler pantry, Jacuzzi, partial stone fronts, gas fireplace, 3 full bath and 1 half bath, garden, demo existing, ect....

Quote looks good to me. and work is not contractor grade.

Hello Sam. Would mind sharing your contractor's contact information? I'm looking to build in the area and the process you mentioned seemed reasonable. Thanks in advance.

Did you end up building? Would love to hear which builder you ended up with and the final costs!

You estimated on the really low end for Hudson county property taxes -

Hello Sam, would you please share the contractor information. I am also planning to rebuilt in Bergen County NJ, but feeling totally lost.

The OP spent nearly double his original desired budget by the time it was all over with. And cut quite a bit too.

I would love an update. I’m thinking about building in NJ ...