What does it cost to build a house these days....in New England....?

[webbie]

Shows you what i know.

Never been past Bangor or Ellsworth - arcadia. I guess that's where you want us (those who are tourists) to stop anyway!

 

[downeast]

[quote author="downeast" date="1204014108And Please, don't come Downeast : the winters are deadly from October through April, the black flies in June suck blood, the summer is 1 day in July...maybe 2, there are are no bars with 90" HDTV, most women have moustaches, to diddle at a mall you have to drive for hours down south, and the men loose their teeth at 30. Horrible place. Just horrible. Please, stay where you are. Please.
Remember---Portland, Maine is 3 (count 'em, "three" ) hours south of us....on unimproved dirt paths that are unplowed in winter.[/quote]

....when in doubt, re-read. Civilisation is relative. It is "Acadia"---kinda like AmHERst, or WorCHEster, or....
We don need no stinkin tourists.

 

[DiscoInferno]

And Please, don't come Downeast : the winters are deadly from October through April, the black flies in June suck blood, the summer is 1 day in July...maybe 2, there are are no bars with 90" HDTV, most women have moustaches, to diddle at a mall you have to drive for hours down south, and the men loose their teeth at 30. Horrible place. Just horrible. Please, stay where you are. Please.
Remember---Portland, Maine is 3 (count 'em, "three" ) hours south of us....on unimproved dirt paths that are unplowed in winter.

Sounds a lot like the UP:
http://www.exploringthenorth.com/northcountry/guideup.html

 

[DiscoInferno]

On topic, we built a (stick-built in a factory) modular home in 2003, and my parents built a "panelized" (factory made stick-built wall sections) house a year or two later. No quality issues in either house have shown up yet, and the price was right at the time. But we both had major problems with our local builders and their site work, with my parents forced to completely abandon their first septic system last year. So my experience is that the most important decision is to find someone you trust to be in charge, no matter where the materials come from.

 

[jklingel]

Disco: Care to name names? I always like to hear about a company that turns out an apparently good product, esp since I may be using them, too. thanks. j

 

[DiscoInferno]

Disco: Care to name names? I always like to hear about a company that turns out an apparently good product, esp since I may be using them, too. thanks. j

Our modular is a customized "Loft" model from Wisconsin Homes (http://www.wisconsinhomesinc.com/). They also had good followup for the next year fixing the small things that pop up in all new construction. My parents' was made by Wausau Homes (http://www.wausauhomes.com/). Doesn't look like either one serves Alaska, though.

We looked at some others at the time, Stratford Homes and Dickinson Homes (a smaller UP company) come to mind. They all seemed pretty similar both in price and construction, sadly I think we mainly made our choice based on a completely dishonest estimate from the builder (who was also the Wisconsin Homes dealer) for the site work. If anyone in the UP wants to know who not to use, drop me a line.

 

[jklingel]

Disco: Thanks a lot; I will check out their web sites anyway. Sorry to hear you ran into a "pro" who was apparently a liability instead of an asset. I hope (s)he gets his/her just desserts. j

 

[DiscoInferno]

Disco: Thanks a lot; I will check out their web sites anyway. Sorry to hear you ran into a "pro" who was apparently a liability instead of an asset. I hope (s)he gets his/her just desserts. j

Well, my builder was arrested and convicted for writing bad checks to a subcontractor on my house. I keep a blow-up of the announcement from the local paper at the house. I also sent a copy to Wisconsin Homes, although he's still a dealer.

 

[RISurfer20]

Lot 1/4 mile to ocean in RI costs around $300 thousand if not more and thats just a 5,000 square lot. Not many vacant lots located by the beach. I have a beach house my lot appraisal has doubled over my ranch style house. 2 minute walk to the ocean. Flood insurance is 500 a month. Prices in Narragansett and Newport have tripled over the past 5 years. It is not like it used to be. Many people from New York and CT are purchasing homes along the RI coast and building up. It is an ongoing battle in my beach house neighborhood as to which house has the best ocean view. In other words all the new homeowners continue to add additional stories to the old beach homes.

 

[webbie]

Hah, yeah _ I saw a house about a mile inland with a walk-up attic. There was a big window in the side and you had a killer view of Eastons beach.....

Place was cheap - too bad it was in the middle of commercial buildup.....

The island did triple since about 1998-2000, but is now down about 15% from the high - and my guess is that certain properties will end up at 30% or more down. Still not a bad drop compared to what I expect to see in Florida, Hillton Head, etc.

Since there is SOME money around and it sits within a few hours of 20+ million people, it is unlikely to fall too far (IMHO). But it is always hard to measure exactly what the bottom is when nothing is selling. In other words. the "market" only comes into effect when the auctions take place. As of now they have lowered a lot of stuff and still no bites. But some stuff is selling - over a million or year-round living!