Building Costs In Arizona

[Anthem]

I am in the High Desert of Southern California. You can build a good quality home for $100 per SF.

My uncle was just quoted $138 per SF to build a small 3 b 2 b in Arizona, this seems very high to me. Anybody familiar with costs in Arizona?

 

[Anthem]

The town of Topock to be exact.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I know some Mexicans in Arkansas that will build you one for $60 a SF local price. We'll haul the lumber and the Mexicans to AZ, build it, and split the diff/
There is a builder locally who has a Colorado contractors lic. that is cutting lumber in E. Ok and building pole barns in CO. He is making a killing. Barns that cost $10/SF here sell there for $30/SF, and he is making money on the construction and on the lumber from his sawmill.

Another contractor in E. OK is building houses post and floating slab floor, metal roof and exterior, foam insulation, about $50/SF. Cent air and pellet stove heat. They'd work great in AZ.

 

[Ultraviolet]

Preston,

What type of construction? What kind of interior finish? Exactly how big is the house?

Where is Topock (never heard of it) and is it a remote area?

It's typical for prices to be high when an area is difficult to get to, very hilly and/or rocky (expensive site prep, alternative septic system, 300-500 drill to water, etc.).

When there's a 50 mile drive each way to get to the building site, material and labor costs go way up.

$138/SF is not necessary unreasonable, if there are extenuating circumstances. Most custom builders I've run into lately are charging from 20-25% for their profit.

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Topock is on the Arizona bank of the Colorado River southeast of Needles, CA. Nearest builders would be from Bullhead City (about 25 miles), Lake Havasu City (about thirty miles), Kingman (about forty miles) and Needles about ten miles as the crow flies but twenty miles by road. No industry, commercial (except rental parks for snow birds), etc in the Topock area. Although it is about five miles north of I-40 just before you cross the river, that five miles is a narrow, winding road. So you can't get there from here and construction workers would have a lot of travel time. Most of the materials would have to be hauled in from Las Vegas, or wait for a local supplier in Bullhead City or LHC or Kingman order them and then wait for shipment. So a price per square foot to construct would have lots of factors that building in a larger town wouldn't have. Marshall & Swift show about 2-3% more than Phoenix or Tucson. And the land was probably more expensive than a similar lot in Phoenix or Tucson, specially if it is near or adjacent to the river. Private land is very, very scare in that area. Most is federal, state or Indian reservation.

 

[Anthem]

Thanks Joanne,

My uncle owns a few lots in Topock, I just want to make sure he isn't getting burned. This is his retirement plan,

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

I would recommend he get quotes from builders in all the above mentioned towns. Here in the southeast area, builders can have a varience of $20,000 to $50,000 quotes for the same size house of the same materials with the same amenities. So sometimes the new home owner is simply buying a name that they can brag about--the quality is the same. They all use the same sub contractors.
But because of location, the contractors willing to work there might be very limited!

Has he considered a manufactured home or modular home? It used to be that the majority of homes were mobile and manufactured homes in that area.

 

[Anthem]

He already has a manufactured home and now wants some site home built homes. I will suggest that he get a second quote.