Good day all. My wife and I are looking at the possibility of building a home in the near future. How are prices? My gut tells me prices should be good with the lack of work and demand, but one never knows for sure. Thanks for any help. I am just looking for a general idea if contractor and material prices are really good right now or if building now vs. a year from now would make much difference. Thanks again.

If it matters. It would be about a 1600 sq ft rambler on a full unfinished basement in Central MN. Thanks

Labor is low and materials are up. Materials should level off.

When labor is cheap, it's not a good time to build IMO, unless you already have a good builder. There are plenty of slackers out there, ready to do anything for a buck. Be careful.

Codes are stiffer than ever, so the longer you wait, the more you will spend on material and labor (when you hire pro's).

I am in the process of building an addition on my house. I hired a cement crew and an electrician. Both are family friends. The rest was labor supplied by me and a small crew. (mostly by myself....boy it gets dark early) There was enough new codes in electrical that I was glad I hired a professional.

Just finished building a 40x60 garage with 14 ft. ceilings. The bills all ran a tad higher than expected for materials.

Building anything right now will cost more than what it will be worth on todays market. That is a bad thing.

I hope the best for you, and you will be one of the few that may be keeping a guy in business a few more months.

IMO, you picked the perfect house to build. A rambler is by far the best house to own.

Thanks for the info. I figured you would respond as you seem to have good info for any home improvement question. Why are materials high? There can't be much, if any demand. We are pretty hesitant at this point due to the economy and such, but I will continue to do some research and get some bids, get all the land paperwork finalized so we are ready when the time is right. Thanks again for the info Roofer.

Roofer - will you email me the price you've got into that 40x60? It's exactly what I'm looking to build and would be interested in what you got into it.

LwnmwrMan22@frontiernet.net

Thanks.

Roofer is right,
labor is low right now and materials are still high. I have a small concrete company and cannot believe the prices people are doing flatwork for, especially with the fuel surcharges on concrete and the price for steel reinforcement. I thank God I have been busy all year, but that is only due to custom homes. Make sure you get references and do your backround checks on all your subcontractors if you have not worked with them before.

Mrs boilerguy and I were out looking not too long ago, at materials for a pretty good sized deck I wanted to build.

Wow, materials costs are up, up, and away!!!! Myself, I'm holding off for a bit. I know they won't come down too far but I'm hoping they drop a bit.

Lumber is up about 25%, siding is up about 40%, shingles are up 100%, all since this spring. Cement has increased (not sure how much), and delivery fees add into that as already mentioned. Anything metal or aluminum has increased dramatically.

As Shoogs said, check out the subs. Make sure they are at least insured. If they aren't, they are scabs working for beer and cigs money.

We just finished finished a 1200' rambler with attached garage (28x28) and full walkout basement. We were about 5% over budget, due specifically to materials and excavating (every scoop he was hitting rocks, and we needed more fill than expected) and well drilling (closer to lake than expected, so needed a sucker truck at $600).

One thing I disagree with is that the building cost is more than its worth. Total opposite in my case anyway. edit: actually I am not totally sure on this, as it did raise the value more than building cost, but on lake lot and all, so maybe different, and all costs were included, septic and well, etc...

And yes, all our subs were insured, one thing I made sure of, and our contractor was tight and did everything by the books.

I also will be building this spring.At this time I'm hesitant and wondering the same question.Its material costs I'm concerned about,with the housing boom stagnating,repos,lots on the market,I'm hoping material prices will drop! I was going forth with the high prices thinking they wont come down.
Gas was playing a large price hike with materials,its comming down,as stated housing not much building there's too many houses on the market,prices comming down.With the economy I am thinking prices have to drop!
I'll be watching prices and markets and will build in stages,but my expectations are prices HAVE to drop if so I'll buy most everything and store it with the idea it will go up again.I'm also wondering if this spring is too soon??

My take on it for what it is worth.

If you are thinking about building in the next year. Do it. Most contractors and subcontractors are slow and looking for some work.

Material costs are higher then they were, but if you can look into you crystal ball and predict what they will do, I have a few questions about the stock market for you

The financing for a new home is at good rates, labor is low, and materials are a guess if the go up or down. I know that in my 15 years as a contractor, things go up, but don't come down much at all.

Remember Katrina??? OSB went up to $20 a sheet, then went back down to $5. Now it's about $7-8.

Laminate shingles used to be $80 a square, then went down to about $40. Now they are at about $90.

It all goes in cycles. Personally only been in business for about 12 years. My dad has been doing this stuff for over 30 and has seen what has happened.

I'm really hoping that quality craftsmanship comes back. 90% of houses built after the early 90's aren't worth the dirt they are built on. Mainly because work got easier, the market was up, materials got cheaper, and the public was fooled that new was better than old. I hope people in the future will see this and start paying for better quality.

I appreciate the info guys. I'll let you know what we decide/how it goes. Thanks

Short Term Spikes do not make long term increases. Look at drywall prices, up about 45% in the last 3 years, steel, continues to climb, copper, etc. I don't see any of these (maybe copper) going back down much until we take over China



I see more and more of the clowns who were throwing houses up as fast as possible being hit really hard by thie slowdown. It is hard on all of us, but the guys with low quality, poor reputations, and low grade materials are slowly weeding themselves out. The guys who live on customer references and have always done it the right way, will still struggle, but will still be doing this in another few years.

I see this winter being very hard on most trademen and contractors.

I think roofer has a good post IDEA. In the 70s Denver had a housing boom 3 yrs lots of people moving there,material prices soared! 1 yr after lots of forsale empty homes! it took 6-8 months but everything,materials,labor,permits substantially dropped.In the late 70s early 80s same thing happened in SanDiego County Cal prices soared then with over abundance of empty homes prices droped as fast as they rose.
These are specific areas,But now the same is happening nation wide. Something has to give to equalize the economy.how will say Georiga Pacific move materials when no one needs them cause of all the empty houses.With price drops in housing why remodel when its probably easier and cheaper to just move.which in turn stagnates the construction even more.Think GP will reduce prices to keep sales up or just start layinoff and have little to no income?
with fuel prices dropping less to transport,less cost to produce.

Having my own business and being in construction for about 13 years I have seen bad construction going on for year and wondered why they can stay in business. I try to give it my best and when I'm finished I don't have to come back to fix mistakes and everyone is happy. You can have craftsmanship in your work and still have a fair price.