The cost to build the average
$246,453 in 2013, reaching its highest mark since 1998, according to a
construction cost survey of 3,019 builders by the National Association of Home
Builders.
The survey also showed that new-home prices jumped 25
percent to $399,532, the average new home was 300 square feet larger at 2,607
square feet and the size of the average lot shrunk from approximately a
half-acre to one-third of an acre from the last time NAHB conducted the
survey in 2011.
Though the average cost to build a home in 2013 represented
a 34 percent increase from the cost $184,125 in 2011, profits jumped to
9.3 percent from their 2011 all-time low of 6.8 percent.
In 2013, interior finishes accounted for the largest
percentage (29.3 percent) of the average cost to build a home in 2013, followed
by framing (19.1 percent), exterior finishes (14.4 percent) and plumbing,
electrical and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (13.4 percent).
