The home construction industry is booming. From home renovation projects to new home construction, the demand for contractors and builders has never been higher. At the same time, however, home construction prices have also skyrocketed in recent years.
Since home construction projects are a lot more expensive than they used to be, many people have become hesitant to invest in home construction. After all, home construction projects can cost a homeowner tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The reasons why home construction projects are so expensive vary depending on what type of home construction is being undertaken. For instance, new home construction tends to be more expensive because it involves the cost of buying land and building a home from scratch and the price of transporting materials, paying for repairing heavy equipment, and the labor of contractors.
However, home construction projects will always be worth all the money that homeowners spend on them. After all, a house is a great asset. Therefore, home construction projects can be considered as wise investments.
Reasons Why Home Construction Projects are Expensive
Construction projects are expensive. Home construction is even more so than other types of construction, and there are many reasons why home construction costs tend to be higher.
First off, the cost of building a house depends on where you live. The price range for building a single-family detached home in an urban area ranges from $140 per square foot in New York City to $120 per square foot in Los Angeles, while it’s only about $80 per square foot in Dallas or Houston (for comparison).
In addition, land values also vary greatly across different regions, especially if you’re trying to build near downtown areas that have already been developed with high-rises and office buildings. If you want your new house built right next door to one of these developments, then expect the price tag for your own project to go up accordingly!
Second, home construction projects are expensive because homebuilders need to increase their prices to cover all of their costs. Construction companies factor in a lot of contingencies into each home project, which can include anything from changes ordered by local authorities during inspections and approvals processes, delays due to inclement weather, or other factors beyond their control (e.g., a homebuyer’s decision to pay the home builder in installments).
Since homebuilders can’t predict all of these costs, they have no choice but to build into their prices some extra revenue (i.e., profit) just for such cases. As a result, homeowners need to pay more for home construction projects.
Third, home construction projects are expensive because real estate developers need to increase the cost of buying home lots. Once homebuilders purchase home building sites, they not only have to pay the full price of buying the land (i.e., its fair market value) but also need to allot some money for development costs such as clearing trees and debris from construction areas, installing roads and sidewalks leading up to homesites, grading home building sites.
This way, homebuilders have to deal with home building regulations in the subdivision and housing demand and its costs. The market value of home lots varies depending on several factors such as homebuilding regulations, location, land characteristics (e.g., flatness), infrastructure provision, homebuilding supply-demand gap. Thus, home construction projects are expensive primarily because of homebuilding regulations and the home building supply-demand gap.
Lastly, homebuilders have to pay home construction workers, which increases home building costs. Workers need to be paid for the time they spend working on homebuilding projects. For instance, workers take home a fixed amount of money per hour regardless of whether they are building homes at this point.
Thus, home builders have to hire more workers during home construction projects because there is so much work and a limited number of people available for home building. The more workers working on a project, the more home construction costs go up.
Impact of Higher Home Construction Costs
Higher home construction costs have an impact on homebuyers who are looking for new homes to purchase. Home construction projects are so expensive because home builders are forced to spend more money on home construction. Thus, homebuyers will have to spend more money if they want to buy a new home built by a professional home builder who knows how to build an efficient and effective home for families.
The factors above give a good overview of why home construction projects are expensive. Therefore, homeowners should do their best to stay informed about home construction costs if they are interested in constructing a new home.
