Reasons to Build Your Own Home

• Author: Chris Remington
• Posted: 2023-10-23

The housing market in the United States is a mess. In fact, most housing experts go well beyond that description and call it an outright disaster. There are a lot of people who blame it all on a lot of different things. Some cite COVID as the reason that America's housing market is in such shambles, while others blame the current government and claim that Joe Biden is inept. Some even take that back further and suggest Donald Trump's policies are to blame. Regardless of who or what is at fault for the state of the housing market, pointing a finger does not fix the problem. Millions of people are out there looking for homes right now, and most of them will not be able to find one. This is why more and more people are deciding that it's best if they build their own home instead of getting into a bidding war and paying four-times market value for a typical home.

One of the biggest reasons people are opting for building their own home today is that there are over 2 million more people in the housing market in 2021 than there were in 2020, and there might be another million or more extra in 2020. This is because every single person who has crossed America's southern border is allowed to stay, and they are all looking for homes. The kicker here is that these people are actually qualifying and getting government money to get homes, so they out-compete American citizens and take precedence with America's government. Yes, things have gotten that crazy in the country, and people who need homes are noticing.

Here are a few reasons that more and more people are turning to building their own home instead of trying to compete for the few available.

1: Finding Land is Easier than Houses

The first reason here is that getting land on which to build a home has become a lot easier than getting a home that's already been built. Although the government cannot actually build any new land in the country, what they can do is allow different zoning grants in order to transform some areas into residential home areas. A lot of people are finding vacant lots around their towns and cities, and they're actually going to their local housing and zoning commissions and requesting approval to build there. While this process can be slow, more and more local governments understand this problem and are actually allowing this zoning to happen.

The typical cost for a lot that's roughly a half acre in size is about $50k. This size of a lot is more than enough room to build a good-sized home on and to have an actual big yard. It's something that a lot of folks are turning to, especially in rural areas where no new homes are being built at all, and fewer people are interested in moving out because they enjoy the rural life.

2: The Costs are Cheaper

In 2020, a single family home that was valued at $250k is now valued at over $400k, and that's assuming that you're not getting into a bidding war over it. It's a very ridiculously artificial price increase that threatens to collapse the entire housing market again; however, it's exactly where the market is at, and it's what people have to deal with. Unless, of course, they build their own home, and then they do not have to deal with that.

With the average cost of a lot being 50k, and another 50k or so to tie everything into the municipal grid, that's $100,000. Add another $100,000 to have the actual home built from the ground up, and people are finding that they can get a brand new home for $200k, and that this home is actually much better than one they would have spent twice as much on.

3: You Won't Carry as Much Debt

You're simply not going to carry as much debt by building your own home. For starters, the price isn't as much to begin with, and so you're not going to have to pay back but about half of what you would have to with a typical home. You also don't have to worry about mortgage companies, as the means by which you can get a monetary loan are entirely different here.

The basic gist here is that if you need a house, you might be a lot better served by building one yourself.