The average finished sales price was $665,298 for a typical single-family home built in 2024. This was the result that the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) published in the Cost of Construction Survey.
The construction costs were 64.4% ($428,215) of the average price of the home. This is only the fifth time that these costs were over 60% of the total sales prices since these surveys began.
Although many construction material prices have not increased as much lately as they have over the last few years and inflation has been reduced, lot availability, labor shortages and increased labor costs are still issues. The unknown impacts from possible tariffs and US immigration actions are weighing on costs now, and will in the future. The increased costs have made homes less affordable for first-time home buyers, which has reduced the percentage of these buyers who are purchasing newly built homes. It has also affected the average square footage of new homes. The 2024 average finished square footage of 2,647 is 86 sq ft larger than in 2022 but below the average sizes in 2015 and 2017.
The survey is based on a limited number of responses so it does not compare with the much larger data set that the U.S. Census Bureau collects in its Survey of Construction. However, the NAHB survey provides a detailed breakdown of the costs to build a home in 2024. In addition to the total cost, NAHB offers a breakdown of construction costs by the major stages of construction:
- Interior Finishes
- Major Systems Rough-Ins
- Framing
- Exterior Finishes
- Foundations
- Site Work
- Final Steps
- Other Costs
NAHB provides an interactive graphic and a chart for the breakdown of construction costs by these eight major stages of construction.
In June the Census Bureau releases their Annual Characteristics of New Housing data about the prior year. Currently the data is through 2023. The national average sales price of new single-family homes sold in 2023 was $514,000, according to the Census Bureau. Due to their larger data set, regional averages are also available, along with additional details and characteristics of the homes.
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