We are planning to build in Iredell County NC and have been pricing out home plans for months now. Prices have definitely gone up just recently! We were going to build a 2450 sq ft 1 story home and it would have been around $96/sq ft, but is now being quoted at $118/sq ft because of "increases in material prices" and everyone in the industry getting busier. Those numbers are coming from a builder that uses very cheap base finishes. From a really good quality custom home builder, we were quoted about $160/sq ft for a different (and more complicated) 1 story plan, which included nice finishes, 30k in stone and all of that. I have heard a 1 story home costs about 30% more to build. If that's true, maybe you could be at $120/sq ft just depending on how complicated the plan is.

That is what I was afraid of!! It seems the housing market is really on fire in that area. Good and bad!!!

I'm in Gaston county just one county over. Housing is NOT on fire in these counties. Prices for materials went thru the roof because of Sandy last fall. The mfg are just taking advantage of that and raising prices just like other huricanes....another words...ripping people off! There is NO way to quote by s/f. If you can send me your e-mail, I can put you in touch with a very good GC in this area. He only charges a flat rate fee. All material and labor you would pay at GC cost.

This post was edited by robin0919 on Fri, Apr 5, 13 at 23:12

Supply and demand, increased fuel costs, how is that ripping you off? Building materials are a commodity and traded on the futures market.

I live in a very low cost area of the country, probably lower than NC even. Mississippi. A true upper end custom home but not a robber baron mansion (no gilt chandeliers or solid blocks of marble carved into tubs) will easily run $175-200+ a square foot. You can do a decent semi-rural mid grade custom home for $130-150 or more urban for 140-175. You can get the price down even further by choosing a simpler plan that the builder has done before and just keeping the finish level high. You can do a lower mid grade home with a simple plan and moderate finishes all day long for $100 a square foot. However, you can usually buy something existing at that level for under $75. You can even do a budget tract home in a subdivision or mobile home that is pretty nice for $50 and just put it on your own land.

We are looking at upgraded moldings, 10 foot ceilings, subzero fridges and wolf range. I do not want a rectangular box with a roof but not looking to build myself a monument either. I have seen so many huge homes on half acre lots. We are building on 6 acres so scale should match better. I was figuring on around 160-175 sq ft but would love to get that down to 150. I still don't completely understand why homes in the Charlotte area don't have basements. We have so many dry basement professionals in OH it seems they could make a mint working in that area. It doesn't add that much cost to a home to dig out the foundation and pour walls.

millwork......so you're saying when OSB goes from $5.50 a sheet one day and then it goes up to $18 a sheet is not a rip off??

They don't build basements down here because they don't have to unless the lot is sloped and then of course you have to. In the north the freeze line is 4' deep so you 'have' to dig that deep for code and if you already have to dig that deep you might as well make a basement.

It's all about the finishes.

See if you can find out when the area's Parade of Homes takes place. It should be in the next month. You can tour a variety of new homes and meet some of those higher end builders. You can check out the finishes and quality.

As far as basements go, I also live in the Piedmont and I've yet to see a dry basement here. It's either the clay soil or the high water table or both. I'm originally from Michigan, so it was hard to get used to basement-less houses.

Comfort - when you are doing some of the things you want to do, the $/sqft really does become hard to compute.

A good sub/wolf package is $30k vs $2k for a tract build appliance package.

In my area of NC, you are $900k range so I think $150 is possible. But really at that price point, there is so much variability in expectations. Kind of like you can get a BMW for $35k or $100k but the price spread on a Toyota is much lower.