What Does It Cost To Build?

In today's economic environment, one of the first questions builders are asked about building in the Low Country is "what does it cost per square foot to build today?" Unfortunately the answer is not an easy one in this economic environment or at any other time for that matter.

In general the cost of building in the Low Country today is significantly lower for any style, size, and configuration of home than it was in 2005 to 2008. In our experience, custom homes are 15% to 25% less. The cost reductions are mainly due to lower labor costs and reduced cost of many building materials, particularly framing materials. Concrete, drywall, steel, and petroleum based products have not gone down in cost and in some cases are even more expensive.

Unfortunately there are builders who will tell you what they think you want to hear when you ask about the current cost of construction,or worse, they will give you a cost per square foot without adequate information as to style,size, level of finish, build-up (elevation between finished grade and the first floor) and ratio of heated and unheated area to total square feet under roof. These are all factors that significantly impact cost per square foot.

As a final comment on this subject, the term "cost per square foot" is meaningless without one of the following qualifications: "heated" square foot, "gross" square foot, and "adjusted" square foot. Gross square feet refers to the total of all square feet under roof including the heated area, porches, garage, and second or third floors if applicable. Adjusted square feet refers to a method of projecting cost by factoring the various elements of the home i.e. heated space, screened porches, covered patios, covered entries, driveways, garages, etc. The most common is cost per heated square foot which is based on the total cost of a home divided by the number of heated square feet. Even this can be misleading if items such as landscaping, irrigation wells, structured wiring, permits and other costs are or are not included.