From: Petryce

How much will it cost to build my own house in California?

Hi Petryce,
I ran a cost analysis on a 2000 sq. ft. 4 corner house on "Building Costs by City & State", # 5 on the byoh "Getting Started" page.

I compared building a house in the Sacramento, Ca area vs. Charlotte, NC.

I don't know where in CA you are planning to build (nor what size or style house), but Sacramento & Charlotte are comparable cities and I am very familiar with Charlotte.

I used the following options on the calculator:, #2 (good quality), forced air heat & AC, 500 sq ft attached garage, 1- Zero-clearance insulated prefab metal fireplace with brick face, outside the metro area & not in a tract.
Here are the results:

Charlotte: Subtotal Direct Job Costs (Does not include: Permits & Utilities, Insurance, Plans & Specs, Final cleanup, Builder's Markup (Profit), nor Land.

Material: $75,578.00
Labor: $45,491.00
Equip: $2,622.00
Total: $123,691.00

Sacramento: (Same criteria)

Subtotal Direct Job Costs
Material: $76,296.00
Labor: $90,906.00
Equip: $2,839.00
Total: $170,041.00

A difference of $46,350!...all in the "labor"!  I was surprised!


You can calculate your own approximate building costs for any area of the USA with this tool!

Hope this helps, but if you have any ?'s, I'm always here.

Carl