Question for my real estate savvy Ags. Does anyone know historically what the gap between cost to build and similar existing homes tends to be, or how it tends to fluctuate? In the 2010's, I was able to build a new house for cheaper, or at least the same cost as buying a comparable existing home. I in fact did that very thing in 2013 or so. Lately, it seems to be quite the premium to build new. Comparable homes to what I want to build seem to be 250ish a foot. Seems like new builds are in the 275-300 a foot range, easily. Are listings just still catching up?

Depends on the neighborhood/ area.

I had this same question on here a few weeks ago and didn't get much response. Same is happening for us - our land price from 2018 coupled with the building proposal this past month comes out to $300/sf.

Closest listing I've seen is $240/sf for an existing home/lot but this one just listed. Prior to that, two went under contract likely between $210-$215/sf. So there's definitely been some movement but even our builder just told us if he were in our shoes, he wouldn't build right now considering how outrageous the costs are coming through. Who's to say what the future holds with costs and/or interest rates but we've decided to tap the brakes on building for now.

This is Grimes County.

Rustys-Beef-o-Reeno said:

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Depends on the neighborhood/ area.

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South college station acreage hoods. It's custom build for custom build, not talking about spec or tract housing

it takes a while to catch up if they ever do

MTTANK - we are also looking at full custom and those houses for sale are also custom with building dates ranging from 2010 to 2018. Very odd times we're working through right now.

When you take everything into account (permits, fees, interest carry, etc etc) I have found it is less money or best case equal to buying an existing home.

Appreciate all the response! The more I have thought about it, I don't think building cost will come down much. I think existing home prices are still catching up to reality. I also don't think the interest rate hike will do much to change the current pricing. There is just too much demand and not near enough supply. I really just don't want to sell my existing home at too much of a discount in the process of purchasing a new build. Willing and able to wait if need be. Uptown problems. Feel for the first time homebuyers and new families in this market.

Existing homes can fetch a premium over new builds for customers moving from out of town, or some such circumstance, where they need one quickly. They don't have the time to wait for a build. New builds can cover some of that market by building spec homes, so that might fluctuate based on how many spec homes are coming on the market.