New home construction is one of the few remaining crafts humans have not replaced with a machine. Someone still has to frame, sheet rock, and paint each completed home. However, while construction workers are still needed, they’re doing one of the least-creative jobs on the planet. Most home builders rely on set criteria to build homes in a timely and cost-efficient manner.
What is the cost of building a house?
There’s a trend here. Today’s architects and home builders want to build steel-frame homes with high-end finishes as quickly and cheaply as possible. Building it cheap and selling it is today’s homebuilder’s mantra.
Building a house has dropped dramatically in recent years but is still more expensive than building one out of wood. Today’s average home is a pre-fab cookie-cutter-looking box with two or three bedrooms, but it’s all supposedly energy-efficient and green.
How often are housing starts?
We expect a new home construction spurt in the spring, summer, and fall as people start thinking about remodeling their homes. However, housing starts have been steady since September 2013. Today builders are standing still. Many state governments try to keep housing affordable by limiting how many homes can be built.
It could lead to more minor home sales and even more problems with people having too much money tied up in their homes, so they decide to move into a smaller house that has declined in price.
What factors affect how long it takes to build a home?
● High cost of transportation to and from construction sites
Is it faster to build a high-rise in downtown Boston or a single-family home in Stoughton? The answer depends on how much room you have to work. The further away the builders are from their materials and the workers who will put them together, the longer it takes to complete each construction phase. For instance, if you order materials from roofing companies in Lynchburg VA, and need to transport them from Lynchburg to Stoughton, you are faced with the time and cost of transporting those materials.
● Lack of workers in the housing industry
Construction companies are always in need of new employees. The rule of thumb here is that if you’re hiring a four-person crew, you’re taking on at least three jobs each month. It places a burden on homeowners who want to expand their homes. The shortage of workers, in general, means that it can take longer to complete the construction process.
● Use of a single contractor for the entire project
It is not a random statement. The construction industry has changed drastically in the last 20 years. Many subcontractors will work on any home that needs a renovation worth less than $500,000.
Projects of this value tend to go through the same contractors who may have worked on several projects. An example of this is the complete gutting of a home to renovate it for new occupants. The time spent doing the work is more than the amount of actual labor.
Even two contractors could be doing more work than one in these cases. The only items that hold up a project like this are decisions made by the owner and their financial backing.
● Poor management and organization at construction sites
A common complaint about construction companies is that they do not keep detailed records or, for that matter, any records.
The lack of a written record of the time and materials used is a red flag to homeowners who have to try and decipher what happened on their projects. In the end, it all ends up costing much more than it should.
Does it take less time to build homes in certain places than in others?
It is widely known that the Northeast and South are the most expensive regions to build a new home. The biggest culprits are New England and Atlanta, Georgia. The new homes in these regions cost significantly more than homes built in the Midwest. Homebuilders do not use the same criteria for building houses in different country areas. Building your own home can save you a lot of money while at the same time providing a new challenge. If you are willing to spend more time looking for suitable material suppliers, you can find that it’s not that difficult to build a good house. The process will take some time, but it will be cheaper than building one from the ground up if done right.
