ave cost per Sq ft for new home in lakes region?

[Sue Doe-Nym]

Originally Posted by jmen24

I will take a two story Arts and Crafts for $151/sf, please. (Broome Building, I just grabbed your number from your post and I am not slighting you or making any implications, just illustrating a point)

A 2500 sf Ranch will not have the same SF price as the Arts and Crafts mentioned above.

When building a home you need to draw a circle on a piece of paper and within that circle make 3 pie pieces. Each gets a name, Price, Quality of Finish and Square Footage. The owner gets to pick two and the builder dictates the third.

You will be a far more satisfied customer if you eliminate the thought of what your home will cost you per square foot. It is a method that is proven completely unreliable and unless you are purchasing a modular home will never be accurate.

My post is to show that what someone considers a standard home may be very different than anothers. The reason the general square foot number does not work is that there are 25 different components to building a home and depending on the selections made in any one of those sub catagories, the number for the exact same envelope can vary greatly from one customer to the next. For example; one person may want carpet, while another hardwood. One person may want vinyl siding and the other Fibercement or vinyl rail vs cedar or composite. The options are almost infinate in the number of different combinations of choices.

Basically when expecting a home to fall into a specific value per sf, you are setting yourself up for a big let-down in either sticker shock or buyers remorse. Do yourself a favor and have a detailed estimate put together by a builder that you might want to work with. This will give you a budget reality check and tell you if you need to tone down some selections or if you can go for the upgraded kitchen as you found room in the budget.

It's a shame that more people don't realize or want to understand the excellent points you make.