When building your dream home becomes a nightmare

[Riccochet]

I can understand that lumber has gone up big time but how can a house go from $525K to $750K to build? Did every single component of the house go up that much?

Not only that, but the article says the house is nearly complete. Meaning, the builder is trying to adjust the price at near completion. You'd think the builder would have known a long time ago, oh, to the tune of $200,000 ago, that it was going to cost more. And that would have been known well before completion.

Betting the builder would probably have not made much at the $525K price, but know now they can swindle the new owners out of another $200k or just sell it to another buyer for more than $750K.

Strange things are afoot at the circle k.

[m.t.hands]

we have a piece of property we had planned on building on but due to crazy lumber and material cost in general we will be living a little longer in a camper, housing around here has been a "seller's" market, but when you have to replace it becomes a dark realization and hard to determine the real benefactors

pricing is slowing going back down, but we can't pay 8-9 $ for 2x4's and we had plans for 2x6 exterior walls above grade, and poured concrete walls below

[trashmanssd]

I fell like someone is playing fast and loose with the numbers. House that was 525K with his salary and profit built into that price, 50-100K. Now "cost" him 750K just to build? Sounds like someone is trying to justify that he wants to exercise a clause he has built in that lets him out and not the buyer just so he can sell it for way more money because the market is stupidly inflated. Take out his salary and the profits and the land and what do we have a house that costs 250-350K to build in a normal market. So he is saying every single thing basically doubled, or did it quadruple because around 50 percent of construction cost is labor. Just man up and say I have a clause built in that lets me out at my discretion and sticks it to the buyer and I am using it because if I don't my profits would be cut in half from what I originally planed and if I use it they will be doubled what had planed. My word isn't worth anything and I AM CASHING IN on this market.

[sll]

Also in this part of Texas a $500,000 home is usually gonna be some substantial square footage. Probably at least 4000' or so. Takes a good amount of materials to build it. That area is about 25-35 miles or so from us.

Dang big difference from here in TN......I would gladly pay $125 a square foot.

[ameneddie]

Heating & Air cost has went up between 25% ( equipment ) & 50% ( material ) this year and a severe shortage of both.

[avidbasser]

This is becoming more common around here as well...I live in North Texas and this is now the 3rd incident of this happening in the news. 1st was a newly wed couple that was moving to my town of Pilot Point. They were building a home in a new addition just down the road from us. They had to back out as the price increased close to 20% and they couldn't afford the house with the increase. The increase was listed as building materials related to: lumber, roofing, concrete, and brick.

I feel for anyone that this happens to.

[ifishinxs]

House being built across the street had a build price of $460,000. Now its over $500,
00 and climbing. Not a good time to build.

[E-rude_Dude]

If you can’t afford it sell it and buy what you can afford. So what if it was supposed to be your “dream home”. It’s life. Deal with it and move on. Any building that keeps me and my wife safe and together is my dream home. Life is what you make if it.

[BigFishSteve]

It's amazing what us humans will do to ourselves. A buddy just let his wife have the kitchen remodeled and some can lights in the living room and paint. $50K. People have lost their damn minds. Everybody has to have a giant home, 2 extra vehicles, remodel this and that.....Regular young women thinking they have to have a $25K wedding dress. it's sad yet comical.

[smbass77]

A developer is building a few houses, maybe 8, right near my house. When they started clearing the land and putting in sewers the sign said $500s. A few weeks later the sign read $600s, a few weeks after that it read $700s. They now have the price as low $800s on the sign. All these price changes in about 7 months, yet the square footage of the homes per the County zoning paperwork has not changed.

I figured it was a combination of higher costs for materials, and increasing sales prices for all homes. No doubt these builders are seeing the skyrocketing housing costs and licking their chops and possibly getting a bit greedy.

[Zach201xl]

If you sign a construction contract typically the builder is putting your order as soon as you sign. I can understand fixtures going up a few hundred bucks here and there.

maybe that’s a NC thing? We started building in January and haven’t had any issue with increased prices of lumber.

[4dollar]

This is BS. The builder should have locked in all the material pricing once the contract was signed to avoid escalation costs. If he did not it should be his problem.

[BigSexyPhoenix]

I’m confused as to who we are supposed to feel sorry for here, the people trying to build a half a million dollar home or the contractor trying to screw them. Sound like first world problems. I would hate for this couple to have to really go slumming and live in say a 350k house lol.

[dartag1829]

Take a trip to the local lumber yard. Plywood is 100.00 a sheet. OSB is 48.00 a sheet. 2x4's are 8.00 down from 10.00 a couple months ago. All building materials are though roof.

[Roosterman]

Young family neighbors bought couple hundred acres to build chicken Houses on. Got the loan, did $500,000 worth of dirt work then had to stop because the price of the houses kept rising so fast their loan would no longer cash flow. So now there is a farm with 8 50’x600’ pads sitting there empty.

[ameneddie]

This is what happens when you flood the economy with cash, flood it enough and hyper inflation occurs, only way to curtail it is to raise intrest rates.

[Dixie-Raven]

A friend of mine in the business says costs on some items are going up 5-10% every 2 weeks. Not the answer anyone wants to hear but really your only option is to wait for the prices to come back down and then try again.

[spinningreel]

Everybody wants to drive the Cadillac, but only wants to pay for the Kia. Can’t fault the builder, he has no control on material costs, can’t expect him to just absorb it & work for free.

[dvl2700]

Daughter contracted to purchase a Townhouse that was going to be built. Assured by the General Manager of the project that it would be done by June 1, 2021. Contract said had one year from signing to finish. This was October of 20. She has been living in my basement waiting to move. Needless to say, it isn't even close to being done and the builder is not returning calls. When he does, he blames everything on COVID. Biggest problem is they keep moving the date a month at a time. Had she been given good honest information, she would have rented an apartment for 6 or 12 months rather than live in my house and work remotely. She is trying to get out of the contract and now they say they have until June of 2022 to completion.
How can anyone make good decisions when the information they are getting is incorrect from the start.
dvl2700

[RyanJ]

We have seen 30-40% increase in new construction cost here in our area....this story is not fishy at all.