One of the most common questions I get asked is, "How much did you house cost?"
Prior to building a house, I really didn't understand why more people didn't talk about how much their house cost because like most people, I thought that it would help me with the budget for my house.
As I now know, the cost of someone else's house isn't actually helpful for others. Here's why:
Home costs vary by location: Whether you're building in a different state or a different county, the cost to build varies.
Building costs increase each year: When we built our house, we asked our builder if we built our exact house in our exact location on the day that we closed, if the cost would be different and he said it would be at least 50% more expensive. Home building increases each year but 2020 was exceptionally more expensive thanks to lumber costs!
Home costs vary by builder: When we were looking for a builder, one builder said they couldn't build our house in our budget while the builder we chose built our house and came in under budget.
Site prep costs make a big difference: If your property doesn't need a lot of site prep, it may be less expensive to build than ours which needed a lot of site prep for our driveway, adding quite a bit to our total cost.
Level of finishes completely change your budget: If you're putting hardwood in your home, where I put LVP, the cost per square foot would be higher than ours which changes the total cost of your home.
To summarize, even if our neighbor built our exact house with my builder today, it would not cost the same as our house did.
I hope this helps answer any questions you have about why I don't share the cost of our house and why it won't actually help you. Be sure to follow along on Instagram for weekly advice and building tips!
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