Cost to Build a House Calculator

As a national planning range, a production-quality home runs roughly $140 to $180 per square foot of construction cost, a standard custom home $200 to $270, a true custom home $300 to $410, and a luxury home $450 to $700 and up, before land, design fees, permits and site work. Those figures move with your region, your finishes and the market, so treat any calculator, this one included, as a starting point to be confirmed with local contractor bids.

The per-square-foot figures here are hard construction costs: foundation, framing, roof, exterior, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, insulation, drywall, interior finishes, cabinets and fixtures. They exclude the land, design and engineering fees, permits and impact fees, site work and utilities, financing, and the owner's furnishings, which this calculator adds separately as soft costs so the total is realistic.

Labor rates, material logistics, code requirements, permit and impact fees, and market demand all vary by location. Coastal California and the Northeast commonly run 20 to 25 percent above the national average, while parts of the South and Midwest run 5 to 10 percent below. The regional multiplier in this tool applies that swing, but local bids remain the only reliable number.

Design and engineering fees typically run 6 to 12 percent of construction cost for a custom home, permits and impact fees another 1 to 5 percent depending on jurisdiction, and site work varies enormously with the lot. On top of everything, carry a contingency of 10 to 20 percent, higher for custom work, remodels or difficult sites. This calculator lets you set each and folds them into the total.

No. This estimate covers building the house and its immediate soft costs, not buying the lot. Land price is intensely local and often rivals or exceeds the cost of the structure, so it is best evaluated separately with local comparable sales.