It is so area dependent that anyone posting the figures is really like throwing random numbers out there. Owning the land may not save you much. Plus it depends on what kind of land and how much improvement has been made.

There are tons of expenses related to just getting a piece of land prepped for building. A lot of times developments will have already made all these improvements and the cost is prorated into each lot price.

In the Pacific Northwest, you will consider yourself fortunate to get anything near $200 a square foot, not including design costs, cost of the land, cost of improving the land, or other miscellaneous expenses.

Good luck!

We own our land, are we have had builders quote $90 to $100 per square foot. We live in north TX.

There are so many factors that go into the cost per square foot that it is really a nearly useless number. There has to be some standard to compare, so the industry uses cost per square foot, but really it is only useful as an apples to apples comparison. I just bought land in a suburban neighborhood and there are two houses sitting close to each other. The first house has 8 bump outs and 14 hip roof peaks, while the other is a simple colonial with a wing that has three roof peaks and no real bump outs. Assuming the two houses are the exact same square footage and have the same interior quality I would still think the first house would be at least $40 more per square foot.

A significant amount of differential costs in houses is in roofs and bump-outs. The most effecient house per square foot is two story on a finished basement that is basically a square. Assuming the neighborhood will not allow you to count basement or garage square footage, as most don't, and assuming you can get around to the back or side for a basement garage, you can build a 32 x 32 straight two story with a gable roof and a basement garage and probably be $50 per square foot less than your neighbors. Of course, your HOA would probably never approve it, your neighbors will hate you and you will probably never sell your little ugly house but you will save money. I personally feel the trick is to get it as close to a simple roof as the neighborhood will allow, eliminate as many bumpouts as you can as they are very inefficient at adding useful square footage on the inside. Your price per square footage will go up as you increase levels, so if you are OK with a two story then do that.

However, if it helps you I am shopping my basic plan around to builders right now. I have been given "ballpark" estimates from $90 to $110 per square foot from custom builders. I have been given an $80 from a guy who specializes in less custom and more "common sense" builds (he is still a very reputable builder but encourages less expensive cabinets, lighting, flooring, etc...) In my area these are pretty realistic.

Yup, ditto above. Prices are going to vary like crazy. In Northern Michigan, we are paying just over $200 per sq ft for our custom home. That does not include the lot.

We are coming into the final stretch on our custom build. We own the land, the septic and the water filtration system already in place before we started to build. My experience is that even though all those pieces were in place it is still more expensive as you are not "sharing" the cost to build with all the neighbors. Buying a home from a developer in a sub division calculated out much cheaper for us than buying a similar size house with the same type of finishes Ina sub division.

It cost us $250 canadian per square foot to build.

Our build sounds similar to what you anticipate. Brick, 3 car side entry garage, hardwood throughout with tile in baths, carpet only in kid's rooms, granite throughout, 4000 sq ft. Lot was paid for. We came in around $150 per square foot.

We just finished the mechanicals stage of our custom home, and began spray foam today. We are building about 30 miles north of Houston on 1.7 acres which we own. Our budget is on track for about $78/SF (living) for a 3,950 SF ranch style with game room upstairs and 630 SF detached garage with septic and water well. That price per SF does not include the garage or large outdoor patio in the floor area calcs.

We are in the NJ area right outside NYC... We are building a new home on a plot of land that we own outright.. The house size is as follows.. Living Space = 2832 square feet, Garage = 668 square feet, Unfinished Basement = 1,394 square feet.. It would depend on how you break down the price per square foot.. If you include every square foot of space ours is coming out to $96 per square foot.. If you just look at living space it is more like $165 per square foot.. This includes 9ft ceilings, hardwood throughout first floor and stairs, tile in kitchen and all baths, carpet throughout second floor, granite in kitchen and all baths, etc.. The only things the price did not include was "hanging" light fixtures and appliances.. We estimate that this will add about 15k onto the price... We also did not include "advanced" wiring.. I plan to wire the house extensively between home networking, whole house audio, video surveillance, etc.. We were coming up with over 100 runs of Cat6 alone.. Builder said that he would rather have that priced out separately and I am free to do it myself or have someone of my choosing come in..

Our home will be about $100 sq. ft. This price does not include land, permits, reports, architect or hook up fees. We are owner builders and are doing a lot of the site prep and finish work ourselves. This is a totally custom 3500 sq ft. home with mid to upper grade finishes (Hardwood, granite, tile, vaulted ceiling etc.). We are in the Pacific Northwest and the cost to build is high and land is expensive. With the land and everything we spent getting the land ready for permits we are around $200 a sq ft.

We are in central Illinois. We bought the lot for $40,000. The house is 1800 sq ft and we paid about $115.00 per sq ft.

We are in Missouri. We are a custom build on our private owned land in a rural area. Our house is 2050 sq. ft. and we are paying about $132/sq.ft. This is 9 ft. ceiling on main floor, unfinished full basement with higher ceilings in the basement, small concrete porch in front, laminate/vinyl/carpet, nicer windows, fireplace, granite. Good luck!

For a standard build in PNW (WA), the land developer/builder offered $123/sq. ft. (land is not included). Being my own architect/GC and doing a significant amount of work myself (all interior, except plumbing and hanging drywall), I hope to keep basic costs down to under $100/sq. ft. for the 7000sq. ft. home, plus 7600 sq. ft. initially unfinished walkout basement. What this may not include is full cost of certain very large floor to ceiling windows, floating garage (921 sq. ft. hollow core prestressed concrete), land based 20KVA solar power (I will install) and a few other crazy things I have in mind, subject to design/permit/code approval.

In Louisiana. We are GC'ing our own home. Living sq footage is 3138. Total sq footage is 4789. Foundation is slab on grade. Excluding cost of the land and dirt/foundation work, we should finish up around $114/sq ft for the house. Cost of living is clearly much lower here. All brick exterior, large porches and garage, 10 and 12 foot ceilings, custom cabinets, granite, 2 fireplaces, small outdoor kitchen, interior brick arches. Southern/Acadian style home with concrete columns, one story, 9:12 main roof pitch, one gable and the rest is all hip roof.

We are in Northwest Florida and are about to sign our contact. For $100 a square foot (235k) we are getting a 2347 sq ft hhouse with 600 +/- of covered porches, 650 +/- sq ft of garage, 300 sq ft unfinished bonus space, hardie plank exterior with some brick, wood decks, 9ft ceilings on first floor, 8ft on second, icynene (sprayfoam installation) in attic, regular in walls, engineered wood flooring on entire first floor (site finished in our area is $15 a square ft), open foyer, two stair cases, Alabama White marble in kitchen, granite in bathrooms, 4'4"x9' walk in pantry, large ttiled shower with frameless glass, custom cabinets.. I'm trtrying to be as detailed as possible!!!

We are building on 45 acres (5 acre pond, 25 ppastureland, 15 timberland) that we got for 120k. It appraised for 180k so bank have us 3 acres few abd clear to use ads downpayment.. We've gotten lucky!

akaypick, you got really lucky.

Akaypick,

Would you mind sharing who the builder was? I have just purchased a sweet lot in NW Florida and am gathering builder recommendations. Thanks for sharing all the details.

We're building a custom home on 65 acres in East Tennessee and its estimated at $135/sq. ft. for conditioned areas. This includes the GC fee, permits, clearing the home site/ driveway, and septic. This doesn't include the water line or landscaping, and I'm sure other odds and ends that will come up. It's a 1.5 story simple gable metal roof with 2591 sq. ft. of finished living space, 734 sq. ft. unfinished bonus room, 520 sq. ft. porch, 713 sq. ft. garage, and TBD sq. ft. unfinished partial basement. Vinyl siding (for now, hope for hardie in the future) with brick skirt, engineered hardwood, granite in kitchen only, 3 bedrooms (more future bedroom potential in unfinished areas), 3 full bathrooms. We have a lot of extra expenses starting with raw land. Square footage is hard to calculate-my $135/sq. ft. calculation is the total estimated price divided by finished living areas. The basement excavation and all unconditioned spaces under roof, including the porch, of course aren't priced the same as conditioned square footage, but they aren't free either. So I guess I could say we're paying a lot less per sq. ft. if everything was broken down separately. $X for unfinished areas, $X for basement, $X for porch, $X for conditioned living space.

We are building a 2-unit 3 BR, 4 Bathroom, per unit townhouse (we will be living in one side) in South Florida. Each unit will be between 2500-3000 square feet and our $/sq ft will be between $133-$160 with it most likely falling squarely in the middle. This is without land costs but all other costs rolled in.

This is all very interesting, but SF costs for land and for building mean virtually nothing and have basically no comparative value. As has been said, land and construction costs vary radically by region and by time of year. More to the point, cost vary due to complexity, quality and frankly, lack of thought resulting in change orders during construction.

A starting point is to look around closely in the area where one wants to build and see what comparable homes of comparable quality and land are selling for.

New tract homes are likely to be more expensive than existing ones. Custom homes are likely to be even more expensive. But like everything else in life, "it all depends".

No one on this forum can tell anyone else what their house is likely to cost.

Cost for just construction, not land is about $450 per sq ft, hoping to stay closer to $400, but its not likely.

SW Montana here. $165/sqf

5,000 sqf house, tile, wood and carpet, 9' ceilings, 3 LARGE garages, indoor pool room, 4 bath, large spaces.

We owned the lot $200k with utilities and common septic system. No water, (means we will have a well).

Virgil said: "More to the point, cost vary due to complexity, quality and frankly, lack of thought resulting in change orders during construction."

Exactly. Are you building a basic house with clamshell molding or no molding around the windows, inexpensive carpeting throughout, minimal tile, laminate counters, etc or are you building a top of the line house with 10" crown moldings, 8" baseboard molding, calcutta marble tile in the bathrooms, Sub zero quality appliances, hand scraped hardwood floors throughout, and fireplaces in every room?

Are you building in a HCOLA area or in you in a rural area where land and labor are inexpensive?

A great example is my house which is custom. If I go with his basic features, which are still very nice, my cost per square foot will be $217 a square foot. Not cheap but it does include granite, tile, wood floors, a pool with hot tub, security system, a Bosch appliance package, tankless water system, semi custom cabinets, Kohler quality fixtures and many other options.

However if I add every single option at the maximum price, meaning I decide I can't live without the $50 a square foot tile, or need more expensive wood flooring, the elevator, a full outdoor kitchen, upgraded moldings, a fancier staircase, etc, etc, the price could jump to as high as $279 a square foot.

I can go outside my target area to an area that is 5-10 miles from where we're building and can build a house for 1/2 the price per square foot. Same zip code even.

So as Virgil is saying, it really means nothing what the square foot price to build is.

I always feel like our cost of living in (small city) Manitoba, Canada is exhorbitant compared to the prices I tend to see here.
For us, count on an empty city lot 30ftx80ft selling for $125k-200k, and the house that sits on it as an extra $175/sq ft (bare bones starter) - $250sq ft ('tract builder custom') to $300+/sq ft (true custom).

In 2009 I had a 1700 sf home built by a contractor for $100/sf. My husband is the GC on our new home build, and we will come in at between $90 to 100/sf for a 1900 sf home. We did not get any estimates for the new build, but with talking with various people in the industry it could have cost between $130-135/sf. It's a simple square floor plan, but by acting as our own general contractor we were able to better upgrades on flooring (wood throughout) HVAC system (ductless), better than code on insulation, better lighting, plumbing fixtures, wood burning fireplace, etc. and best of all- mortgage free! We are in western Oregon and the 2.75 acre lot cost us 70k in 2012. City water, existing septic and power.

Just finished 2160 sqft on owned land. Completely custom in east Texas (10' and 9' ceilings, HVAC, spray foam insulation, WB fireplace, septic, generator with auto switch). Friends with the builder--so imagine an insanely low contractor fee. Came out to $109/sqft.

SF costs for land and for building mean virtually nothing and have basically no comparative value.

I once gave a rough quote per s.f. to a prospect. Found out he got a similar quote from a friendly competitor. He rejected us both, convinced we were "ripping him off" because he could get a similar home built across Lake Ontario in perennially depressed upstate NY for a third the price.