Originally Posted by
Jim Luttrall
We just have more build able land here. A $260K house here will only use $20k to 30k for land cost. Also our labor is cheaper. So a new 260k house here is typically going to be a 2300 sq ft two story house, 3 or 4 bedrooms, 2-3 baths, and two car garage in a new neighborhood. I'll bet your land price is at least $120k for a starter home like you described.
Double your guess.
When we first moved to South Florida in 1987, the first house we had was an attached Townhouse (Patio Home really, it was one floor, but Townhouse is the better known term). We had an end unit which overlooked the wider lawn space between Phase I and Phase II where our girls and their friends used to play. Kind of like having a nice size side yard - it was probably about 50 feet wide.
We paid $65k for that house. We sold it 7 years later for around $80k (prices had not gone up much at that time as there was still a lot of buildable land in South Florida). Our unit was the largest unit at 1,360 sf and had a 1 car garage. The land it was on was probably 35 feet wide (the width of the unit) by maybe 65 feet deep (guessing here).
Now, however, there is little buildable land left down there.
We had friends from South Florida up visiting just this past weekend (they used to own the unit next to us, they sold it and moved to a condo - yecch! - but they like the condo), they asked us what we thought those houses went for today.
My guess was $150k, knowing that the market is down a bit.
They said a friend of theirs just sold their unit (it was a smaller unit than we had and was not an end unit either) for $250k.
Those are now considered 'starter homes'.
Yes, the land cost is way up there.