new construction cost per sq. ft.

[bogey]

Hi all, I'm trying to find what the average cost per sq. ft. is for new construction in my city. I've tried google, ask.com etc. and can't seem to get an answer. Can you recommend a free site I can go to to get this answer? If there's an expert on here already, I'm looking in southern california 91604 area code. Thanks.

[Bewbies]

Go to zillow.com and ask some local experts. Or call a couple builders.

[rockymtnchief]

http://www.building-cost.net/

[bogey]

I'll check Zillow.com
building-cost.net has a whole bunch of questions that I can't answer, but thanks.

[Rain Man]

You talking residential or commercial?

[rockymtnchief]

Originally Posted by bogey

I'll check Zillow.com
building-cost.net has a whole bunch of questions that I can't answer, but thanks.

That's where building-cost becomes more accurate. A square house with moderate fixtures and materials might cost you $100 per sq ft. A house with 8 exterior corners with moderate fixtures will cost more because of added man hours and materials.

[bogey]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You talking residential or commercial?

residential. I am considering the difference of tearing down my existing house and building back a big one and selling it, or selling my existing home.

[bogey]

Originally Posted by rockymtnchief

That's where building-cost becomes more accurate. A square house with moderate fixtures and materials might cost you $100 per sq ft. A house with 8 exterior corners with moderate fixtures will cost more because of added man hours and materials.

I get that. Unfortunately, I don't have detailed plans to answer most of the questions on there. That's why I'm looking for an average.

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by bogey

residential. I am considering the difference of tearing down my existing house and building back a big one and selling it, or selling my existing home.

Burn it-take the insurance money-move to mexico-build an even bigger house useing cheap labor-live like a drug kingpin!

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by bogey

residential. I am considering the difference of tearing down my existing house and building back a big one and selling it, or selling my existing home.

Maybe I'm a simpleton, but can you just look at pricing for a new custom house on Realtor.com and assume that there's a profit margin of 10 to 20 percent built in?

I guess they'd have land prices in there, but you could look at the county assessor's figures to back out land prices in most cases.

[jspchief]

I can't imagine you would come out ahead by tearing down your structure, unless it's nearly worthless.

[bogey]

Originally Posted by jspchief

I can't imagine you would come out ahead by tearing down your structure, unless it's nearly worthless.

I am in the very preliminary stage of this. Here's what I know. Teardowns in my neighborhood are going for $850k (50' X 100' lot) Contractors are buying these homes as is, tearing them down and building back 3,000 to 3,500 sq. ft. homes and are selling them for $1.5 - $1.6M. We're considering moving out. I'm trying to figure out if I would come out better if I tore my own house down and built back, or sell it as is to a contractor. I currently owe $180k on the home. Again, this is very early in the process and I just thought there might be someone on here that would know where I can find out average new construction cost in my area.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by bogey

I am in the very preliminary stage of this. Here's what I know. Teardowns in my neighborhood are going for $850k (50' X 100' lot) Contractors are buying these homes as is, tearing them down and building back 3,000 to 3,500 sq. ft. homes and are selling them for $1.5 - $1.6M. We're considering moving out. I'm trying to figure out if I would come out better if I tore my own house down and built back, or sell it as is to a contractor. I currently owe $180k on the home. Again, this is very early in the process and I just thought there might be someone on here that would know where I can find out average new construction cost in my area.

So you can sell your home for $850k

Or

You can tear down, rebuild, and sell for $1.5 million on a 3,000 sq. ft. house.

That means your extra revenue is $1.5m-850k = $650,000, or about $220 per square foot.

You can check this out: http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?sec...&channelID=311 and assume that the cost of bricks and sticks if 50% higher since it's a 2,000 sq. ft. home, and then I'd bump everything up by a cost of living factor given your location.

My other concern would be that you're building a custom house, so you may not have the cost efficiencies of a contractor who's working on a spec home. So you'd need to add some other factor to account for that, but I'm not sure what it would be.

[bogey]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

So you can sell your home for $850k

Or

You can tear down, rebuild, and sell for $1.5 million on a 3,000 sq. ft. house.

That means your extra revenue is $1.5m-850k = $650,000, or about $220 per square foot.

You can check this out: http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?sec...&channelID=311 and assume that the cost of bricks and sticks if 50% higher since it's a 2,000 sq. ft. home, and then I'd bump everything up by a cost of living factor given your location.

My other concern would be that you're building a custom house, so you may not have the cost efficiencies of a contractor who's working on a spec home. So you'd need to add some other factor to account for that, but I'm not sure what it would be.

You're so kind, thank you! So at this point, it's pretty much a wash.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

part of your problem is the contractor is making his profit on the sale, not on the construction. In your scenario, you would be paying a contractor profit for the construction AND making profit from the sale. You also likely would be paying realtor commissions they may not be.

I'm not going to run the numbers, but I would imagine after the above that the time and effort involved is not going to end up being worth it. maybe if you intended on living there for a period before sale.