Our average customer spends $275,000 on their custom home in Texas (cost of land not included). Below, we explain what goes into that cost & what you can expect to pay for your home building project in North Texas.
By: Brian Carlin
As you begin the home building journey, you'll find that the cost to build a house varies by builder, location, and the type of home you want to build.
We hope this guide gives you more insight into how much it costs to build a house in North Texas.
The average cost to build a house in Texas depends on a wide range of factors, including: size, location, design and materials. Here are some quick tips to give you a ballpark estimate of what you can expect to pay.
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Existing Homes: The average cost of already-built homes in Texas averaged near $300,000 in 2021 (including the cost of land). |
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New, Single-Family Detached Homes: The average cost of a new, single-family detached home in Texas in 2021 was just over $320,000 (including the cost of land). |
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Custom Homes: In our build area of North Texas, our average customer spends about $275,000 on their custom home, with the average cost to build a house falling between $170,000 to $345,000 (cost of land not included). |
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Home Cost Variations: The total cost of a home can vary dramatically (sometimes as much as 30%) depending on the particular site you build. |
The cost to build a custom home in DFW, not including the land or site work, could be anywhere from $125 per square foot to $175 per square foot.
We service the North Texas area and have provided a few rough pricing examples from the cities we serve, such as: Weatherford, Burleson, Mineral Wells, Fort Worth and others. Here's the average cost to build a home by square feet in Dallas-Fort Worth:
We would add that this can be a tricky question because every builder's base package is unique. The best advice we can give to new home builders is this:
Base or standard house costs typically include:
With Hedgefield Homes in North Texas, our homes generally range between $175,000 to $345,000, with the typical home being anywhere from 1,150 to 2,700 square feet.
Hedgefield Homes Standard Features |
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If you choose a professional Texas home builder to construct your home instead of building it yourself, you should consider these four categories for your house-building budget:
We go into more detail about each one below with Texas's average prices for cost of land, site development, building materials & labor, options & upgrades and cost of financing.
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Cost of Land |
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Site Development
$20,000 - $65,000
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Build Cost
Base Home Cost: |
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Cost of Financing: |
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Land cost is easy to figure out, so we don't need to spend much time on it, except to say: be sure to include the closing costs, loan fees and property taxes while the land is held into your total home budget.
You should plan to budget 10% of your total home cost on custom home options and upgrades. For a $175,000 home, you can budget $17,500 in additional upgrades. However, this amount differs greatly by family and needs.
Many clients opt to wait on upgrades for a few years and focus on the base house with a few key options. Both options make sense; it all depends on your needs and desires!
Here is a general idea of pricing for some of the more popular architectural options:
We recommend prioritizing architectural options like larger patios or luxury master baths over upgrades such as flooring, counters, tile, etc. Architectural options will bring more value to you in the short-term as you live in the home, and more value on the market if you ever decide to sell it.
Some examples of components we see owners upgrade often include:
There are two primary types of land purchases you can make in Texas:
In Fort Worth, Texas, the average cost of an empty lot is between $50,000 and $150,000. This does not account for the super custom neighborhoods in Dallas-Fort Worth because those can sometimes be $200,000 or more per lot.
When looking at North Texas, as a whole, subdivided lots can range from $20,000 for a typical mobile home lot to over $100,000 for a 1-acre lot in a developed community. The cost for raw land in the same area—from Fort Worth to Palo Pinto down to Stephenville and north into Wise County—can range from $15,000 per acre for larger, rural tracts to over $50,000 per acre for small parcels in some cities, such as Aledo, TX.
Subdivided lots have been broken up into lots by an owner or developer. They may have put in roads or utilities. This land is platted and recorded at the county level and may have deed restrictions attached to it, or a HomeOwners Association (HOA). It may also have a common entrance feature or shared community green space or amenities.
Raw or unplatted land has never been divided. Typically, raw land will cost less to purchase by the acre but more to develop in terms of grading, utilities and roads. Subdivided property will cost more initially because this work is usually done and is ready for construction.
Site development can vary widely depending on the site. We do not include site costs in our pricing because they can vary so much from lot to lot and depend heavily on owner preferences; however, we will work with you to assemble a budget and a plan for site development and provide the resources and support you need to accomplish it.
Site development costs are typically lower in Fort Worth than surrounding counties because you usually won't need well and septic and the lots are more developed already.
However, it can be higher depending on the particular lot you want. For instance, if you find a lot in Fort Worth that does not have a water tap or meter on site or a sewer tap, that can be $7,000 - $8,000 more in site development costs. If the lot you want has a house on the land that you want to tear down, the cost to tear down the house will push your site development costs up. If it's a raw piece of land that needs replatting, that changes the equation, too.
Whatever land you find in Fort Worth or surrounding cities, consider talking with a builder you're interested in working with or who you've already decided to work with about that land in question to give you a better idea for what site development will be needed.
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There are a few things to be aware of in North Texas as you look for a good site for your home:
Areas with limestone shale or bedrock can be expensive to dig for foundations, but rock makes the best foundation.
Some areas have water tables that are deeper than others, which means more costs drilling deeper water wells.
Areas with heavy clay content in the soil may require more excavation and grading to prepare the soil and stabilize it for foundations, or chemical stabilization treatment.
Most people will choose to finance their home building project with a one-time close mortgage. This means that the lot and the home are both financed by the mortgage company before construction begins, instead of afterwards. This method saves you money in closing costs with the bank and title companies.
We cover finance in another article, but be aware that there are closing costs you pay out-of-pocket, and there are interest payments during the construction period that are paid to the mortgage company each month.
At Hedgefield Homes, we are one of the few companies that will offer our clients an opportunity to build Instant Equity in their custom home.
Instead of charging you to do everything, we help you to manage up to 20% of the work - the simplest and least technical parts - and earn equity in the process. Our customers can save up to 20% on the cost of a home by using this program.
We expect most customers will spend $170,000 - $345,000 for an Instant Equity build, with a large majority falling in the $130,000 - $275,000 price range.
We Believe Your Home Should Improve Quality Of Your Life.It Should Be Efficient, Built To Last, And You Should Love Being In It. Hedgefield Homes Designs, Builds And Remodels Homes That Do These Things.
410 Shops Blvd, Suite 200, Willow Park, TX 76087
410 Shops Blvd, Suite 200
Willow Park, TX 76087