How much to build a house in maine

Good morning,

Any recent new build buyers in Southern Maine? I’m looking at a new build around 1500-2000 square feet. I’d prefer to live in a neighborhood where my kids can interact with other children but rural might be ok too under certain conditions. I’m looking at existing home prices (over 400k for a 2000sq ft in S Maine) and I can’t see how starting out new would be that much more expensive.

Any advice would be appreciated. Any builder recommendations are welcome as well. Thank you everyone.

Of course the final price depends heavily on the cost of the land at the location, the level of finish materials and appliances, etc, but I've certainly seen new homes going up in southern Maine with a delivered cost, including the land, porches and garage, of about $200/sq ft, for new construction in developments. The builder has many economies when they build numerous houses in a development rather than one custom house on a single lot. Often the earlier homes to go in are sold at a more attractive price as the builder wants to jump start the sales in the new development.

If you search in Zillow, you can set it up to filter for houses built since 2010, for example, and then set the upper limit of price where your budget limit would be, and then just use the map and pan and zoom around and see what pops up.

Prices are rising rapidly, homes for sale are scarce and interest rates are down - all the ingredients for a seller's market and multiple offers are back on resale homes. New construction prices are rising as costs increase rapidly. I work with a builder who is building that type of home in Gorham, but I won't promote it here. What you are looking for can be found, with a bit of digging (pun intended).

I have a family member who lives in Hollis and he had a new home built on about an acre of land. The house is only 1200 SQFT and it has an attached 2 car garage. 3 BDRM and two very small bathrooms. The MSTR bath is about the size of a closet and and has a very small stand up shower. His total cost to build a year and half ago was a hair over 300K. I think he paid about a 150K too much but I tend to think everything is way over priced. I believe that a pre-existing home may be a much better value than trying to have one built right now. Seems construction costs are running very high and most builders I know are swamped.

Any interest in doing some of the work yourself?
About 12 years ago my wife and I built our house with this guy:

https://www.finehomebuilding.com/mem.../021161074.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK9H442sEVw

He's retired now but I bet he would do a consult. If you were to build in southern Maine I could put you in touch with the guy who helped me with the real heavy lifting. He is familiar with this type of super efficient design.
Once you've built and lived in a house like this there is no going back. I cringe whenever I see a traditional stick built house going up now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vance Mack

Any interest in doing some of the work yourself?
About 12 years ago my wife and I built our house with this guy:

https://www.finehomebuilding.com/mem.../021161074.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK9H442sEVw

He's retired now but I bet he would do a consult. If you were to build in southern Maine I could put you in touch with the guy who helped me with the real heavy lifting. He is familiar with this type of super efficient design.
Once you've built and lived in a house like this there is no going back. I cringe whenever I see a traditional stick built house going up now.

That's an interesting article, thanks. I guess that was state of the art in 2004. Nowadays such performance is much more common, but this level is still well above code and typical building practices as well.

Thank you everyone for the informed responses. I would say that Outdoor Lover is pretty close on price per square footage. In the end, I’ve decided to buy the cheapest available on the existing market now and maybe buy something bigger later on when the market isn’t so crazy. Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t see any compelling reasons to pay the prices that homes are selling for in most Southern Maine towns. Massive property taxes, mediocre schools, an aging population, absolutely terrible weather - I don’t see any reason to break the bank living here. There are some benefits to living here, sure, but I’m with FreeAmerica - WAY over priced.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreeAmerica

I have a family member who lives in Hollis and he had a new home built on about an acre of land. The house is only 1200 SQFT and it has an attached 2 car garage. 3 BDRM and two very small bathrooms. The MSTR bath is about the size of a closet and and has a very small stand up shower. His total cost to build a year and half ago was a hair over 300K. I think he paid about a 150K too much but I tend to think everything is way over priced. I believe that a pre-existing home may be a much better value than trying to have one built right now. Seems construction costs are running very high and most builders I know are swamped.

One thing to realize is that porches and garages cost real money, but they are not included in the square footage that realtors and homebuyers typically cite. A porch might add $20K and a 2-car attached garage another $50K. They're typically half the cost per square foot as the living space, but they're not free for the builder and so they're not free for the buyer. Somehow they often get overlooked when assessing "what you're getting".

Then, for new builds at least, costs per square foot tends to go up as the house gets smaller. You still need to do all the same paperwork, inspections and approvals, go through similar decisions with the buyer and the design and construction team, still need to get the same heavy equipment out there even if you're building a 1,200sq ft house instead of a 1,500 sq ft house. And if it has the same 1-kitchen, 2-baths, and 2-car garage, adding 300sq ft of additional living room and bedroom space to a house that's already going in, doesn't cost a lot more- it'll be 25% more living space, but not 25% more total cost, probably more like 10%.

Finally, a one-off, custom-build with custom plans will cost a lot more than a house that's being built as one of 20 similar ones being built on a piece of land that was subdivided by the developer. Within a development, the cost of land per acre is far lower, and the costs of bringing out specialized equipment and crews are spread across more homes, materials being sourced in larger quantities can be discounted... there are all kinds of economies in making a whole development instead of 1 house.

Your best deal in a new house is going to be one of the first houses to go in, in a new development. Midsized, with decent but commodity level construction features and finish materials.

Last edited by OutdoorLover; 05-26-2019 at 06:56 AM..

Quote:

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

One thing to realize is that porches and garages cost real money, but they are not included in the square footage that realtors and homebuyers typically cite. A porch might add $20K and a 2-car attached garage another $50K. They're typically half the cost per square foot as the living space, but they're not free for the builder and so they're not free for the buyer. Somehow they often get overlooked when assessing "what you're getting".

Then, for new builds at least, costs per square foot tends to go up as the house gets smaller. You still need to do all the same paperwork, inspections and approvals, go through similar decisions with the buyer and the design and construction team, still need to get the same heavy equipment out there even if you're building a 1,200sq ft house instead of a 1,500 sq ft house. And if it has the same 1-kitchen, 2-baths, and 2-car garage, adding 300sq ft of additional living room and bedroom space to a house that's already going in, doesn't cost a lot more- it'll be 25% more living space, but not 25% more total cost, probably more like 10%.

Finally, a one-off, custom-build with custom plans will cost a lot more than a house that's being built as one of 20 similar ones being built on a piece of land that was subdivided by the developer. Within a development, the cost of land per acre is far lower, and the costs of bringing out specialized equipment and crews are spread across more homes, materials being sourced in larger quantities can be discounted... there are all kinds of economies in making a whole development instead of 1 house.

Your best deal in a new house is going to be one of the first houses to go in, in a new development. Midsized, with decent but commodity level construction features and finish materials.

There are some very good points here, thanks for sharing. In the Maine MLS, agents are supposed to list the finished square feet both above and below grade. If a room does not have a permanent heat source (sunroom, basement, attic, room over a garage, etc.) it is not considered finished space. Of course a real estate listing is only as accurate as the agent or office that enters it into the MLS and some of us are better than others. Buyers should verify all information during before making an offer or during the contingency period.