How many dollars per square foot does it take to build a single family residence in the Bay Area? With a general contractor? Without a general contractor?
House Parameters:
4,000 Sq Ft
4bd/5ba
No unnecessary complicated designs (mostly right angles)
Looking for a polished finish, :fairly high end: marble, fixtures, materials etc
Thinking about Prairie or Mediterranean style architecture.
Flat Lot and easily accessible.
Minimal landscaping
No Pool
Bay Area Guy
Bayareaguy.com
There’s been a bunch of topics on this. Answer, way more than you think. Permits, feeds, etc are a big costs most don’t think about.
There are plenty of threads…But the costs have gotten so ridiculous that even I don’t know the final costs…But contractors markup 25%…Trades people can charge what ever they want and cities come up with ever increasing fees…my guess is $300/sf …$1.2m…maybe could save $150k hiring subs directly…if you could find them and actually manage them…construction $250/sf…city fees $100k…
offsites, landscape, fencing driveway hardscape,
contingency…$100k
How about something like this, in a prefab??? My favorite prefab to date (this is in Burlingame)…
Def not recommending going this low end in the Bay but hey not bad for $90K no???
A co-worker bought land and wanted to do prefab. They quoted him $400+/sq ft which is insane for this area. Now he’s working with a “conventional” builder who looks to be much cheaper. I don’t get how prefab can be more expensive.
Yeah, economies of scale needs to be waken up (like that Bart janitor) still…
nice. what does it cost per foot to assemble the prefab on site? it’s more assembly and less construction right?
Site costs include crane and assembly, foundation, garage, site work, finishing touches, utilities
Is this pre-fab?
Many are here experienced builders including arch elt1. For them, being master of the trade, easier to complete 4000 sqft home than amateur’s like me. Frankly, I went through this preliminary work at wrong time, means availability of resources.
Labor market is tight and very few come for consultations. Really tough to get people to work, not easy at this time.
The cost/sqft for 4000 sqft may range $300 - $350 easily and you will never know until end. Lot of management skills are required and delay is expected for novice/medium experienced persons.
Lot of unskilled are available on call,looks genuinely experienced, but may end up in issues. Good skilled people not available as they are fully engaged.
I have seen, one my friends, started 4400 sqft home from 2016 and not completed yet. After spending few thousand dollars, I rolled back (moved 2 to 3 years) plans as getting labor is tough. At least, I have completed basic design of 3250 sqft single story home+450 sqft garage and stopped it until labor market softens.
Definitely, for starters, we need time, energy, management skills to build such a 4000 sqft home.I have even tried adding one bath room which is quoted 40k to 60k. Finally screwed by one unskilled/useless GC, rolled back the plan. At least, I have piece of mind and sleep well now.
Please ask no questions as this is shared for information purpose how current market is scary.
You can probably get referrals or even work with cloud in case you pull the trigger.
@cloud and @BayAreaGuy.Com,
Here is the firm that is doing that house.
http://www.idesignarch.com/luxury-prefabricated-modern-home/
I decided to move the decision two or more years as I need more cash to start the process, need to have more cash visibility to pull the trigger.
If market slows, it might be better to buy a newly rebuilt house instead of building it on your own. Too much hassle and you may not save much money.
I don’t see the market slowing down in key locations…
“key” -> sf.
lol.
Or BA really…we really are different from most RE markets. Take for instance my Big Bro. Flush with cash and frankly has too many properties already. Hasn’t had a real interest to buy until now. Looked at a multi unit this weekend in the Fab 7x7. So, when you think oh the market is dropping others are thinking time to buy on the rebound since the outlook is still appreciation long term.
Right now there is extreme shortage of skilled traders. @ptiemann expressed the same sentiment. Bay area RE has made too many regular 9-5 people interested in Building /adding square footages and seeing this construction crews are bidding crazy prices simply because they have many too jobs lying around. I hope this market continues to flatten so that some sanity can be restored.