Question out of curiosity?.....

[HaleyB]

I live in Texas, Austin Texas. Austin is the most expensive housing market in Texas. Right now most newer houses are about $85-$100 a sq foot. Older homes (20 years) are closer to $70. Lake view is not a ton more, although lake front is. In town it is about double that. I live WAY out, it takes me a whole 17 minutes to get downtown . Gotta love that.

My parents were building a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 3 car garage on wooded lot, plus library, and a media room, and bonus room for $420,000 it had 3600sq feet on the first floor and was 4200 total. About $100,000 of that price was in upgrades.

However we pay huge real estate tax. About $3500 in tax per $100,000.

Right now I pay more for tax than for P&I.

 

[sajetto]

justhat, all I can say is.......................HOLY COW!!!

 

[bekkiz]

Well, the 1300 sqft house we currently rent in Northern CA, if put on the market, would sell within 5 days for at least a million. It would be promptly torn down and a McMansion would be built in it's place. Then it would sell for at least 2 mill.

The house north of Seattle that we just bought, we got for a steal at about 215/sqft. We're pretty excited

 

[ashjohnson80]

$71/sq. ft.

 

[Crankyshank]

Within a 30mile radius of where I live houses can be anywhere from $175/sq ft to $400 sq ft - depending on the town.
The average minimum household income to own any sort of property in RI in any town is $74000. My house is about $225 per sq ft at last assessment

 

[Chicago526]

Our house cost us $143 per sqft, but we're in a bad school district, I'm sure it's much higher in other towns near by.

 

[lazarru]

Western Jersey, almost PA (I'm only 3 miles from border). Just bought in Feb and it's about 190sf. About the same along the jersey shore where we moved from, but it also wasn't a great town and was a mile from the beach.

 

[salmoneous]

One of the things I find interesting is the way RE prices are viewed in different parts of the country. Around here (Western New England) I've never heard anybody look at a sale in terms of price/sq. foot.

Even the whole concept of sq feet is emphasized differently in different areas. When we were telling people about the house we bought, # sq feet was the first question people from some regions of country asked. We had to dig down deep in the paperword to find it.

For what it's worth, we paid ~$200/sq foot, and it would probably go for $250-300 today. But a huge chuck of that price is due to the land, not the house itself.

 

[golfgal]

One of the things I find interesting is the way RE prices are viewed in different parts of the country. Around here (Western New England) I've never heard anybody look at a sale in terms of price/sq. foot.

Even the whole concept of sq feet is emphasized differently in different areas. When we were telling people about the house we bought, # sq feet was the first question people from some regions of country asked. We had to dig down deep in the paperword to find it.

For what it's worth, we paid ~$200/sq foot, and it would probably go for $250-300 today. But a huge chuck of that price is due to the land, not the house itself.

Same here. You might hear about a per square footage charge for new building to price out various builders but that isn't a good measure of cost. Some might say they charge $100/sq foot but that doesn't include heat/ac, has basic things like vinyl flooring and stock cabinets where another builder might build for $150/sq foot but have upgraded everything and a landscape allowance.

Existing houses in our town go from anywhere from $20,000-$450,000. Some of the $20,000 houses are 2000-2500 sq feet, but need some work where as some of the $450,000 houses are in the 3000-3500 sf area but need some work. Our house will sell for about $80/sq foot and need no work (we updated/upgraded everything).

 

[DVC Sadie]

Our house in Marlyland could sell tomorrow for over 450,000 and it is small about 1600 sq. feet. Down here you could build a 3600 to 4000 sq foot for a lot less then 450,000. You could buy a house on the water for that.

 

[AnaheimGirl]

My neighbor's house recently sold for about $180/sq.ft. Moving from Southern California, real estate seems dirt cheap here. Then we talked with people moving here from Texas, who thought real estate was sky-high here. Funny the difference in perception.

 

[sorcerormickey]

We built 18 months ago for $95/foot. Right now it is priced at just under $200/foot. Not a bad increase for 18 months!

 

[TheRatPack]

Roughly 100.00 per square foot for a nice new home, and anywhere from 35-85 for an older home in the same city.

 

[dizneegirl]

We just bought a cape cod for about $75/sq. ft.

5 years old, and on 10 acres.

 

[ahutton]

I've found Austin to be wildly different depending on the area. Our neighborhood is right around $105/ft ($86/ft 5 years ago), the new builds around the corner are $115/ft for a "base" house with no upgrades and with no lot premium. Getting the house how most people would want it puts it in the $140/ft range. Other areas are high rent districts - $350-500/ft!! The further west you go, the newer the house the higher it all gets. You are getting closer to the famous hill country out there.

 

[mamacatnv]

When I purchased my home 9 years ago it was approx. $80 sq.ft. Nine years later I am at approx $190 sq. ft. New construction is running at approx $180 sq. ft and I don't know about custom construction.

My brother lives in the Silicon Valley, he just purchased a 1000 sq. ft. condo that is 20 years old for $450 sq. ft. then add $300 a month in association fees - Yikes!

If only our wages were going up as much as our property values!