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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Earl who wrote (59102)	8/4/2006 11:25:03 AM
From: tdl4138	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

I think you're off on your numbers....considerably. Here's a link for "new" in Dallas. Obviously a "used" home in the same area would command even less. Same builder in Fla has even cheaper per ft. mercedeshomes.com

To: Don Earl who wrote (59102)	8/4/2006 12:31:58 PM
From: John Vosilla	Respond to of 306849

You need to read the discussion I had with Elroy on this subject. Quite fascinating what the national builders are able to build McManions for and still make a profit. I think once the suburbs in Dallas and Houston get built out that are within xx miles of the city and employment then you get the significant appreciation in rapid fashion you and I are talking about. I know in the closer in areas inside the beltway in Houston there is a housing bubble and prices have gone up dramatically. Recent bidding wars in River Oaks on McMansions. This phoney boom in many overpriced overbuilt exhurbs is going to hurt a lot of people in overbuilt places like Phoenix and Orlando with a ton of buildable land.

To: Don Earl who wrote (59102)	8/4/2006 2:42:23 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

The $100 per square foot construction cost is a widely believed myth -- except in California where people believe in the $300 per square foot construction cost. To be fair if you set out to build a custom home yourself, you'll probably be taken advantage of and your costs will be very high. Any large home builder whose costs were as high as $100 per square foot would have been out of business a long time ago. Many complain that large builders don't pass on their economies of scale to home buyers and this can be true. If you include the home builders 40% profit margin on a home in California, then indeed "building costs" are quite high. But if you check out places like Texas with a 9% or lower profit margin, then "building costs" are low. But real building costs, before profit margins are added are well below $100 per square foot in both places. Keep in mind that the home builder's lot costs in the Dallas or Houston area run around $25k for the typical $300k home - about 8%. In California or Seattle area, the lost cost is more likely to be many fold higher - but that's not really construction costs is it? .