It is SO dependent on not only geography but level of finishes, type of construction, and even local codes. Real estate plays a huge role as well. Sitting on the ocean? Not for 400K. Midwestern rural community? Maybe. 400K might get you a garage in the SF Bay area, or a huge nice house in Kansas.

I updated it to explain that we live in Louisiana. Cost of living is really good here and we already own the land we'll be building on

I found it useful to go to home shows in my area and ask the builders what their house cost on a per square foot basis (without land value). I got anywhere from $135-$220. We also met with a few builders and they gave us quotes, but with home shows its nice to be in a home and see what a price would get me. As previous poster said, it depends on the finishes in the house. It also depends on the builder and their 'brand' value in your area, if you know what I mean.

Still too hard to give you an estimate. Do you need to have a septic built or are you on sewer lines? Bring in electric? Other utilities? What about water? On a well or again on city water? What's the land like?

Do you want a house with basic builder grade finishes? Or do you want marble and travertine floors? What about your kitchens and baths? Moldings? 1 car garage? 10 car garage? Swimming pool?

And you're asking for something 4-5 years down the road. Who knows? Maybe LA will get hot and prices will soar.

Your best bet is to go to builder open houses, see what they cost and then talk to the builders.

Updated that we have been living on the land for years, so it already has the things that make it liveable. The reason I ask for people of the forum to humor me is for responses like "we'll, in my experience, this amount got me this kind of home in this area" or "let me tell you about how my friends experience went " things like that. This is a project for years down the road so I'm saving now with the knowledge that things could change. I don't really know why people online almost always assume the person posting is talking about the full picture in their head within their post

Outside of Seattle 400k will get you about 2200 square feet of average house and some spec quality (as opposed to builder quality) finishes. Add tax of 10%. And this is just the build cost nothing else. Inside Seattle, hold on to your wallet.

Ok in SW FL 400k will get you a mansion with builder grade finishes or will get you a 1500 square foot house with quality finishes.

In fact in my own home I'll be building, depending on the things I choose and the finishes, my completed house can vary in price by over $180,000. So which price should I humor you with?

go to some of the parade of homes in your area.

you will get an idea of what is being done in your area

& get ideas for what you'll want in your build.

start a book of ideas etc and add pics of things you like.

you will be doing a custom build & not tract housing?

what part of La. are you planning on building in?

I got this from truila website.

The average cost to build based on you already having the lot will vary from $80 to $140 per sf.

When thinking about building, first focus on the BIG stuff..here is the basis upon which you can decide:

Based on a typical 1200 to 1500 SF home, 3 bed, 2 bath:
Slab..prep, fill sand, form and pour: Around $15K
Frame: Bones of the building: $15K
Roof: $15K
Plumbing: using instantaneous hot water heater(saves TONS of money): $10K
Central Air and Heat - using at least a 5 ton 14 SEER unit: $8K.
Electric: $12K
Exterior Walls: $20K
Spray Insulation(pays for itself): $12K
Interior Sheetrock 1/2" Walls: $25K
Floors (decent ceramic and 35 yr hardwood): $6K
Kitchen Cabinets: $12K
Appliances: $10k

Other indirect expenses such as permits, insurance, fees, interest from the bank, etc. need to be added into this also.

Web Reference: http://iansellsnola.com

I think his prices are on the low side, and his hvac sizing

is oversized, price for equipment is low. but he is just giving

his best general one size fits all opinion based on his real estate

experience.

if you build in Evangeline parish which is the poorest parish here

in La. the price will be lower than if you build near a city like

Lafayette, New Orleans, Baton Rouge etc.

down the road from me, a $250,000 home was built on a pretty

piece of land under roof probably 3500 sq ft, living probably 2800 sq ft.

just my rough estimate from watching the progress as I pass by.

tell us more!

best of luck.

For that amount of money you could get a 3000 sq ft. home with mid grade finishes, in my little piece of Texas. That is with a quality builder, there are builders that will do it for less, but you get what you pay for.

I'm in SW Louisiana. Nice custom house with some quality finishes for $150 sq ft and a basic house with builder grade finishes for about $80 a sq ft. That's numbers we were given by contractors about 3 years ago so it might have changed by now.

We met with builder over the weekend and our cost to build a 3600 sq ft house came in under 500k, this is without permits and storm design. We are south of Seattle. Our plans are with a new storm water engineer, so we hope to soon have that plan and know what we will need to budget. To get closer to our budget, we know that we need to rethink some of our finishes.

You have to go bare bones with materials from Menards and GC yourself to get $80 sqft in SE WI but that is with a full basement and 3 gar garage. A custom high end home is well over $200 a sqft. Land improvements are a big one too. Septic and well could cost you another $25K.

If you really wanted a flavor of cost just search real estate and filter on year built. Then you can see pics and whats all included. You should be able to extrapolate the cost of land out of the cost.

In NJ roughly $150 - $200 a square foot without land.

For ne plus ultra in Toronto, C$550 sf (US$431), construction only. I'm figuring C$185-C$200 for mere luxury. (Add $20-$30 sf for a general contractor/architect managed build.)

(Often, building cost estimates do not include the cost of management, or assume that management is just an unnecessary added expense, that any homeowner is capable of managing their own build, and probably for less than it costs a pro.)

You could get a theoretical house for $400k theoretical loan.

It depends on your location. We're on the opposite side of the state from Seattle and you could get a VERY nice home here, especially if you already owned the land and had well/septic installed. Very nice : )

In rural north Missouri, given those parameters ($400k loan + presumably your down payment), you could build one of the best homes in our county. About 3500 sq ft plus full basement and 2 car garage. With fine finishes.

geekella,

Not sure where you are located in Louisiana, but we are in rural central LA. We are in the process of obtaining bids at this time to build our home. We own the land, the bids do not include any septic, the 2,300' of water line that we need, or the dirt work for the house pad. Our estimates have come in from $135 to $155 based on heated square footage of 2,029. Overall house square footage is 3,100, we are building an Acadian style home with large front and rear porches as well as an oversized 2 vehicle garage with a large storage area. The estimates include brick exterior, stained concrete floors, 5 1/2" crown molding throughout house, large 12"x12"x17' cypress beam separating kitchen and living area, 8 12"x12" cypress columns on front & rear porches, upgraded 2 stage HVAC system, granite in kitchen and baths, tankless water heater, 8' doors, 10" ceilings, etc.

We are still crunching numbers and reviewing bids. We started getting bids in late March and just received the final one last week. We did receive one bid that came out to about $125 SF, but it was really a "spec" type home, which is not what we are looking for.

I will be happy to answer any additional questions you may have! I am so ready to start building, but it looks like it will be another 3-5 months before we are able to start, thanks to all the red tape!

n NJ roughly $150 - $200 a square foot without land.

Where in NJ can you get a house built for so inexpensively considering NJ is one of the more expensive areas of the country.

$150-$200 a square foot is very much in line with my experience in Essex county. I would imagine it could be 20% less down in southern jersey. This is for a house in the 2500-3000 sq foot range on a build-in lot (so only a little grading, existing sewer and electric), including architect, permits, finishes, appliances.

We're coming in around $215 per square foot for our build (not including the cost of land of course).

We're almost done building a custom home in Georgia for less than $100/sq ft. The house is 2200 sq ft. That does not include the land.

I refuse to do the math on my build.

OP where in La. are you located?

I LOVE your question and I’m glad some people played the game instead of just telling you they can’t because of soooooooo many variables!!!!!! We get it, there are a myriad of variables that make the $$$ go up, down and sideways!!!! We just want SOMEWHERE to start! Best of luck to you!!! I hope you’re living in your dream home SOON!!!!!!!

A lot of things changed in the past five years since this thread was posted.

Heh.