New house costs

[Zag]

Guys, my wife and I are thinking about either looking for a bigger home or possibly buying a piece of land and building. There is a nice piece of land 20 acres further south of our current home and it’s still in the same school dist. 
So im wondering new build costs per square foot, I’m guessing the range in my county (Livingston) is probably around $150? 

[ncountry]

The last few we built were $150-$200 /sqft. Including the foundation.

[airedale]

Another option is a modular, you can pay what your budget can afford and the best part is almost instant gratification as they can set these homes up pretty fast. My son went that route about 20 years ago and purchased a beautiful large 2 story home that still looks as nice today as the week it was set up.

Al

Edited August 22, 2020 by airedale

[Zag]

3 hours ago, ncountry said:

The last few we built were $150-$200 /sqft. Including the foundation.

Ok so I’m in the ball park with my figures then. Thanks!! 

[Zag]

3 hours ago, airedale said:

Another option is a modular, you can pay what your budget can afford and the best part is almost instant gratification as they can set these homes up pretty fast. My son went that route about 20 years ago and purchased a beautiful large 2 story home that still looks as nice today as the week it was set up.

Al

Thanks AD, I’m very fortunate to have close family friends who have businesses in excavation, electrical, lumber company and builders!!

[Moho81]

Thanks AD, I’m very fortunate to have close family friends who have businesses in excavation, electrical, lumber company and builders!!

If you get some good deals from those friends and family and you do some work yourself you can probably be $135 or less without the land purchase. That’s WNY prices. I forget where your from. Unfortunately right now building materials are up about 30% so you may want to hold of on building until the prices go back down.


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[Hock3y24]

Material cost have gone up ALOT the past few months with this " pandemic". something to keep in mind. 

[Zag]

Great point on lumber costs, I would imagine it would be a while before we built if we go this route!

[covert]

Do what I wish I had done and take your plans and try to get an idea how much your taxes will be.  When we built our property taxes went from $1,500/year on 48 acres "Vacant Farmland" to $12,000/yr "Rural Residential".  Cost us $225,000 to build and they immediately assessed it at$350,000 before we even moved in.  I almost puked.

Had I known that was going to happen I never would've done it.

Edited August 23, 2020 by covert

[Zag]

8 minutes ago, covert said:

Do what I wish I had done and take your plans and try to get an idea how much your taxes will be.  When we built our property taxes went from $1,500/year on 48 acres "Vacant Farmland" to $12,000/yr "Rural Residential".  Cost us $225,000 to build and they immediately assessed it at$350,000 before we even moved in.  I almost puked.

Had I known that was going to happen I never would've done it.

Thanks for that, guess I’d have to brown nose the hell out of the town!! 

[Zag]

My biggest concern is how long the gravel driveway would need to be (1600ft). I’m gonna work on some estimates next week.

[Moho81]

Do what I wish I had done and take your plans and try to get an idea how much your taxes will be.  When we built our property taxes went from $1,500/year on 48 acres "Vacant Farmland" to $12,000/yr "Rural Residential".  Cost us $225,000 to build and they immediately assessed it at$350,000 before we even moved in.  I almost puked.
Had I known that was going to happen I never would've done it.

Thanks for that, guess I’d have to brown nose the hell out of the town!! 

You can always try and split the parcel of land. Keep keep the acreage as low as possible for the house and split off the rest as “vacant”. It’s not always possible with the land and how the house sits but it could save a lot of money in the long run.


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[Trial153]

I am looking at about 175 a sqf for a 1200sft addition. So your in the ball park

[Nomad]

7 hours ago, Hock3y24 said:

Material cost have gone up ALOT the past few months with this " pandemic". something to keep in mind. 

Along with scarce, friends are building in Tenn. builder has been having issues getting materials, which has dramatically slowed things down . They had to rent an apartment for six months , as they timed the sale of their house here with a completion date that is no longer .

Our daughter  is still waiting for new shutters to come in , after having her house painted , the first week of July . Glass door mini fridge, for her bar area was quite a search . Our friend needed either a refrigerator or freezer( I forget )  to replace a basement one, so he wasn’t picky . Lowe’s had zero, and didnt know when they would get any .

[covert]

10 minutes ago, Moho81 said:

 

You can always try and split the parcel of land. Keep keep the acreage as low as possible for the house and split off the rest as “vacant”. It’s not always possible with the land and how the house sits but it could save a lot of money in the long run.


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Hopefully  every Town is not a screwy as ours.  I was told if we split a building lot smaller than 10 acres we had to go through the whole subdivision process just like we were building a housing development.  DEC Environmental Impact study, storm water study, etc. and of course we'd have to pay for all of that BS.  After we were in I was going to split it and when I talked to the ASSessor she said our taxes would go up because they would re-assess the vacant land and the land didn't add appreciably to the value of the house, so the house taxes would stay the same.

We're in an Ag district so I ended up finding a crop guy to rent it and then we were able to file for the Ag value assessment which got us down to around $8k.

[Moho81]

Hopefully  every Town is not a screwy as ours.  I was told if we split a building lot smaller than 10 acres we had to go through the whole subdivision process just like we were building a housing development.  DEC Environmental Impact study, storm water study, etc. and of course we'd have to pay for all of that BS.  After we were in I was going to split it and when I talked to the ASSessor she said our taxes would go up because they would re-assess the vacant land and the land didn't add appreciably to the value of the house, so the house taxes would stay the same.
We're in an Ag district so I ended up finding a crop guy to rent it and then we were able to file for the Ag value assessment which got us down to around $8k.

Oh man that is screwy. Sometimes Towns are their own worst enemies. They probably think they are doing the right thing to keep population down.


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[Geno C]

On 8/23/2020 at 8:19 AM, covert said:

Do what I wish I had done and take your plans and try to get an idea how much your taxes will be.  When we built our property taxes went from $1,500/year on 48 acres "Vacant Farmland" to $12,000/yr "Rural Residential".  Cost us $225,000 to build and they immediately assessed it at$350,000 before we even moved in.  I almost puked.

Had I known that was going to happen I never would've done it.

Find out what a conformed lot is in your municipality, if it 3 acres, determine your proper setbacks and survey out a few acres to meet minimum and do a mini subdivision split. youll have 2 tax bills but you will pay for new construction on a few acres rather than 48 and the remaining will be taxed dwelling free and be considered raw land again...

[Steuben Jerry]

On 8/23/2020 at 8:19 AM, covert said:

Do what I wish I had done and take your plans and try to get an idea how much your taxes will be.  When we built our property taxes went from $1,500/year on 48 acres "Vacant Farmland" to $12,000/yr "Rural Residential".  Cost us $225,000 to build and they immediately assessed it at$350,000 before we even moved in.  I almost puked.

Had I known that was going to happen I never would've done it.

I went through that same painful, exact scenario. 

[Zag]

I’ve basically giving up on this land. We walked it yesterday and had good timber and value which could help offset some cost of say the 1700ft stone driveway I would need. To run electric the est with poles was $23,000. I have spent days on the phone with spectrum (it was painful) there is service down the road a 1/2 mile away but they cannot tell me if I could get service or not (I’m still scratching my head as to why they can’t tell me). I’ve heard nothing good about satellite internet service either. 

[Steuben Jerry]

9 minutes ago, Zag said:

I’ve heard nothing good about satellite internet service either. 

You're definitely right about that. It's generally a last resort option. How the cell service at that location?

[Zag]

7 minutes ago, Steuben Jerry said:

You're definitely right about that. It's generally a last resort option. How the cell service at that location?

Cell service is good, the property is in what I’d call a fairly populated area but kind of a hidden away spot which is right up my alley. 

[wjay1552]

It might be best to wait a year or so to get prices on building right now. Material costs are out of sight, a 4x8 sheet of 7/16 osb that was around $8 this spring is now $21 and change at the local Lowe’s. 

[Lawdwaz]

I paid $5.99 for 2x4’s today.....that were $4.49 a month ago. 

[Moho81]

3 minutes ago, Lawdwaz said:

I paid $5.99 for 2x4’s today.....that were $4.49 a month ago. 

i paid $4.39 at LenCo on Tuesday 

[46rkl]

Livingston county taxes are pretty reasonable but lumber prices have jumped pretty high. I built my own log home 23 years ago and the biggest lesson learned is to make sure that you take your best estimate and add 15-20% for unanticipated expenses or cost overruns. There is no better feeling than building your own home. I also had good friends that had the skills I needed. Electrical engineer, HVAC and concrete professionals all made important contributions to the build. Good luck.