NAHB recently published the latest construction cost survey, showing that the average home was built on 14,359 square feet of land, had 2,607 square feet of finished area, and sold for $399,532.
The average share of the home’s sales price which goes to the construction costs jumped from 59 percent in both 2009 and 2011 to 62 percent in 2013. Finished lot costs, accounting for the second largest share of the sales price, dropped from 22 percent in 2011 to 19 percent in 2013. Builder profits are up from an all-time low of 6.8 percent in 2011 to 9.3 percent in 2013. The remaining ten percent of the sales price goes to overhead and general expenses (4 percent); sales commission (4 percent); financing costs (1 percent); and marketing costs (1 percent).
We asked participants to the break the construction costs into 8 major stages of construction. Interior finishes, at 29.3 percent, accounts for the largest share of construction costs, followed by framing (19.1 percent), exterior finishes (14.4 percent), major system rough-ins (13.4 percent), foundations (9.5 percent), site work (6.8 percent), final steps (6.6 percent), and other costs (0.9 percent).
Within each of these 8 stages, participants further broke down the costs of constructing a new single-family home. See table below for all the details.
Source: NAHB blog, “Eye on Housing”
