(Invest) U.S. Price of Construction USD/SF

You can reject it all you want, but there are realities. Here in St. Louis, MO, the median home price is $169,900. No one is going to contract a new 2000 SF house that would cost $700K to build. It wouldn't make any sense.

Here is a St. Louis area builder's project:

Brian

Just looking at it, this house is about 40 years old, it looks like it's going strong.

A lot of Europeans like to sneer at US residential construction techniques. That's fine. Have fun. The fact of the matter is that wood construction is far cheaper and, if you keep the structure dry (intact roof, paint on exposed wood), can last indefinitely.

In the US, the life of a house tends to be limited by it's economic life, not it's physical structure. In many US neighborhoods (including mine, unfortunately), they are tearing down perfectly good houses to build far larger houses (Mc Mansions) because that is what people are buying.

If want to spend $350/sq. ft. for a house it will be a very long time before you recover your investment. Solid masonry construction is just not worth that much to the US market.

-- Doug

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