2007-12-02 04:02:22 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
Not necessarily.
It is true that in most cases when you buy an existing house that you are also paying for many other things such as the time and expense of the developer who had to get permission from the building department, the planning commission and the city council.
However there is currently a glut of homes on the market in the United States because houses were overbuilt in the past few years because the runaway seller's market made houses very profitable to build and sell..
In many parts of the country you can buy a house for less than the cost to build the same house.
That indicates that it is time to buy.
Eventually that excess of houses will be sold. There are very few new houses coming into the market because it is currently more expensive to build a new house in most parts of the country than that house will sell for.
Now is the time to buy an existing house if you can buy it for less than the cost to build it.
2007-12-02 04:18:46 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, it is not, unless you are speaking of contributing considerable labor of your own to drive down the costs.
When you purchase an existing house, you can generally count on receiving mature landscaping, full appliances, and window treatments as part of the purchase price. If you have a builder prepare a new house for you, those items are all optional and can raise the price several thousand dollars after the fact.
(I think this is what you were asking.... :)
2007-12-02 12:12:20 · answer #2 · answered by acermill 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not in this market! There are many sellers who are dropping prices well below the price of land and cost to build combined. A lot of big builders are able to drop prices considerably because they need to sell and they'll still make money on it.
2007-12-02 12:56:50 · answer #3 · answered by Casie 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My ex was a contractor and said you were money ahead to buy a house already built. He said when people built their own, they wanted too much and sometimes their costs would get out of hand. And, once they moved in to their new home, they realized they were not going to be able to afford the property taxes and other associated costs.
2007-12-02 12:13:10 · answer #4 · answered by Harley Lady 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, definitely. You pay for the time and knowledge (that you may not have) for getting a ready-made house.
2007-12-02 12:07:01 · answer #5 · answered by Subhendu S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋