How much would you say a moderate beach house would cost for a construction company to build. I know this is highly variable but just looking for ballpark figure.

The location would be somewhere behind the dunes in the matagorda area. The house would need to be on stilts. 2-3 bedroom maybe 1000 sq ft with one bathroom. Nothing fancy, but a fully functional house. Not a plywood fish camp.

Any thoughts on average cost to have something basic like that built?

If you have the property, I imagine the cost isn't that high. To get insured so you can get a loan, you'd have to meet some specical windstorm construction certs, but for a place that small, you can probably order one of those kit homes made for the coast wind restrictions and drop it on piles.

I guess it depends on how nice of a place you want. What about utilities?

Typical rural construction is $75 to $125 per sf Plus utilities

The places we would consider would be a lot in a subdivision and have all the untilities in place.

We really wouldn't need anything too fancy but we would want it nice enough and more than a camp. I am just trying to figure out a rough cost estimate. Do you have any websites for the kit homes you were referring to?

I've sent you a PM. Likely $100 a sq foot including the lot on average, this is a nice house engineered etc. with granite counter tops etc.

DVM

have some friends building one now. base cost was around $90/sqft...they overbuilt and upgraded a bunch and ended up around $150/sqft.

My Dad is about to build one. He is at $110/sqft.

Yep, you can do it for $100 per sq ft. If you do a bunch of upgrades, it can go up fast.

After seeing what Ike did to Gilchrist and Crystal Beach first hand, the dream of owning a beach house went to the back of my list. All rentals for me.

Thanks to everyone for the info. That is exactly what I needed to know.

DVM, I am not able to reply to my PMs for some reason on my work computer, but if you can PM me your friends email or phone I would like to give him a call.

Thanks again.

tx4guns,

I hear you and share some of your same sentiments. That is one of the reasons we would go modest on the construction.
The flip side is that hurricanes historically are very rare and if you get quite a few years out of a place then I think it is worthwhile

Every place has some risks. Look at bastrop, colorado springs, tornando alley, Texas for droughts and LA for earthquakes. Sometimes the mitigated risk of having a house in a nice place is worth it. Plus that is why you pay for insurance.

Beach house is fine. NICE beach house is kinda looney. I'd only go practical. nothing fancy at all, just the basics. You have to be willing to chance losing it all to water damage.

does building them 13ft in air add to the cost?

quote:

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After seeing what Ike did to Gilchrist and Crystal Beach first hand, the dream of owning a beach house went to the back of my list. All rentals for me

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i'm right there with you. that is the primary reason the cost went up on my friends place...they are "hurricane-proofing" it...deeper pilings, bulletproof roof/windows, etc. still, you never know what will happen...

Hurricane proof is snake oil.

that's possible. they are in oyster bayou. the only "house" left standing after Ike was a 30 ft, 40 year old mobile home jacked up on a make-shift 20 ft frame.

of course, most of the other places were equally a sh*tty, just not as high. the up side is there are a lot of nicer places being built in their places...for now.

New places are now close to 20 feet, plus however high the land is above sea level. If the piles are solid, that will stand up to a really big storm.

in this case, the required eleveation is measured from the water level rather than GL. the water sits a few feet below the bulkhead. want to say it's in the neighborhood of 18' above WL.

[This message has been edited by RK (edited 7/12/2012 12:38p).]

We have a place at Crystal Beach built in '05 and cost was $120/ft then. Builder lives right next door to us and he says he can build now for $100/ft +/-, I believe code is now 20' there but not positive. New ones going up around us are all 20'. 18' was code in '05 and anything above that you got a break on flood insurance so he built everything 18 1/2'. Everything he built down there survived Ike.

I thought only one house on Crystal survied Ike?

eta: looks like more did than i thought...

[This message has been edited by Deats (edited 7/12/2012 1:39p).]

Just about all the old stuff around north of rollover pass was wiped out, but some of those houses were only 10 feet off the ground and 30-40 years old. The newer construction parts of bolivar look fine. Not near what it was, but here are still plenty of houses around crystal some built since Ike and some that survived Ike. From talking to people that lost houses and news articles and so forth, height was the greatest factor on survival of beach houses on bolivar, not that wind wasn't a factor, but houses were able to survive winds better than storm surge.

we`re 5.5 miles from the ferry landing. There were 48 houses on the 1st 2 streets from the beach before the storm. 14 left after the storm. Newer ones like ours were there, older ones gone.

bump.

Eight years later anyone care to guess the cost per SF? I'm thinking $175

I saw a company in Galveston stating $250 and up per sq ft. It's hard to find a lot of companies price without meeting with them. I was interested in a small house, 1 bed 1 bath in the 175 per sq ft range, anyone know anyone around this price and does smaller beach homes?

We just built a custom house on acreage in Colorado County and it was just under $150 PSF, with a significant chunk of this cost being engineering, earth, and foundation work due to a sloping build site.

We are now kicking around the idea of building a 2000 SF house on piers in Key Allegro in Rockport with the idea that we eventually retire there. I am hoping it can be done for $125 PSF but have no idea what it may wind up costing.