Absolutely it was cheaper for us to add on, rather than move! And I definitely recommend doing it now, when the market is down. Here's my story:
We first seriously considered remodeling back in 2002, when the real estate market was bustling, but hadn't hit the crazy boom prices. We got six estimates for adding on a basic game room over our garage. We really just needed to knock off the roof of the garage, open a doorway into the existing house, and build the room. Pretty basic. Oh my gosh!!!! The average price for that was around $60K, and the finish out was going to be paint and carpet only, and the heat/AC would tie into the existing second-story HVAC.
We wanted to pay cash for the addition, so we waited 6 years to save, and got serious about doing the addition in spring 2008.
Wow, were we glad we had waited! Now, the housing market hadn't hit bottom yet, but it was clear that all of a sudden no one was building much of ANYTHING. We were able to get a custom home builder to do our addition. Normally that job would have been too small, but he just wasn't getting much business. Total cost was ~65K, and here's what we got:
- the room built over the garage
- a rebuilt chimney (we had a leak you couldn't see until the roof came off the garage)
- an entire wall of stained, built-in bookshelves and cabinets
- fresh paint and new carpeting FOR THE ENTIRE HOUSE
- hardwood veneer flooring for the dining room (not laminate)
- a separate heating/AC unit just for the game room
- a HUGE, climate-controlled, walk-in closet
- replaced 2 ancient tank water heaters for a single tankless water heater
- a 10'x12' site-built storage shed
- brand new upgraded drywall and paint for the entire garage (had to upgrade to meet new city building codes)
- a dozen new smoke detectors wired into the house wiring (to meet new city codes)
- a contractor who was a DREAM to work with and who finished the entire job in 7 weeks!!!!!!
Boy, were we ever glad we waited! Those folks were desperate for business - and things hadn't even really gotten bad yet. If you're going to remodel, do it before the housing market really recovers.
That said, definitely do your homework before you choose to remodel. We added on because it was cheaper than buying a new house, we love our neighborhood, adding on didn't "price us out" in this area, and honestly, we only expect the addition to add $30K to the value of our house long-term. We built the game room because WE wanted it, not because it would add to the resale value of our house. It made our house much more livable for *us*, and we could not be happier that we did it. It was a huge bonus that we could get so much general maintenance work done at the same time (the fresh paint and carpet). Also, now the old game room is my home office (I work a lot out of my house, especially in the summer when school is out), and I can close the door to the game room to keep down the noise. I LOVE IT!
Definitely get several estimates, check the contractors out thoroughly, and be careful how you pay. Our contractor worked on basically a "pay as you go" basis. IOW, we put down a certain amount of earnest money to start the demolition, then we wrote him another check basically every week of the job. The idea was we paid for something as soon as it was finished. For example, the first week, they demolished the old roof and the drywall in the garage, finished the framing for the room and got tar paper on the roof. The check at the end of the week paid for the demolition work and the framing. Next week they finished the roofing - and we wrote a check. You get the idea. We had a chance to inspect the work, the city did their inspections as necessary, and then we paid. It worked really well.
Anyway, it was a great experience for us. PM me if you have any questions.
Good luck with whatever you decide!
We got several estimates, and even the highest one was cheaper than moving. The construction business is hurting, so they're offering great deals just to get working. We're tearing off our old 1 car garage (circa 1925 with a wooden plank floor) and replacing it with a 2 car garage with an office and pantry/laundry, and upstairs storage space. The house currently has 2 bedrooms and no storage, with my washer in my kitchen and my dryer in my bathroom. I'm wicked excited to have my washer and dryer together, DH is looking forward to an office that's part of our home but not IN our home, and his current office will become baby's room. (DH runs his business from home; the cost of the addition is less than the cost of renting an office space in town, and allows him to be a work-at-home dad when baby is little. It's a win-win.)
