By Mike Bodeen · 12 March 2018
You’ve long dreamed about building a custom home. You enjoy looking at glossy 4 color new home brochures, and have spent more than a few Sunday afternoons walking through builder’s model homes, and the thought of building new excites you.
However, you’ve been told by many, that it’s going to be more difficult to accomplish your goal without great time, expense, and often, angst! Yea, but when it’s done you get a custom and quality (maybe) built home exactly as you want it. After all, every existing single-family home you’ve looked at, just didn’t measure up to the dream home you’ve envisioned.
Two weeks ago, we looked at the benefits of buying in a new home community. The advantages are many, but the drawbacks may be significant, especially the cost and location factors. You simply cannot buy a new home for anywhere near what you can get for an existing one, and there’s just not many new home communities closer in to Scottsdale or Phoenix that are affordable.
Almost everything has changed in residential building. Large and small builders alike have gone out of business since the great recession. Money tightened up to finance land purchases and new construction. Land prices in prime areas continue to rise.
Like everything else in real estate, the big question to be answered in building from scratch is where do you find a lot to build on that provides a good central location? Though there are currently over 3200 lots for sale in the Phoenix-Metro area, there are few vacant lots available anywhere close in. We sold an acre lot in Scottsdale last year near the Scottsdale and Cactus Rd area for a half million. It also needed considerable site prep work as there was a remnant of an old block house, buried septic tank, and an underground bunker — maybe add another $75K or more for those removal costs alone. But it’s a great location!
There’s a vacant lot currently for sale in Arcadia for $875,000. Or how about an acre parcel listed by our firm that’s right on Starfire Golf course for $679,000, just south of Cactus and west of Hayden? About the only way one can get a prime close-in, in-fill lot is to bulldoze an existing home. Indeed older 60’s and 70’s 2000 SqFt homes in this same area are priced starting at half a million also, plus bull dozing costs too.
There’s some good values in E. Scottsdale north of the Mayo Clinic and East of Scottsdale Mountain. Hillside lot values here start at $175,000. All utilities are in, though steeper sloped lots will cost much more in site prep.
On the outskirts, there are vacant North Scottsdale lots (Rio Verde) for sale starting in the low $40,000’s. That’s the good news. Now add in the site work plus all utilities including power, septic, water, with dirt road access that will mean a long commute time. A number of these lots are in floodplain locations and will add to the cost as well.
For the most well-heeled among us, they can choose a 19 acre parcel in North Scottsdale with commanding views of Pinnacle Peak (see above) priced at $4,150,000. Another lot in upscale Silverleaf at DC Ranch is priced at $6,495,000. Or how about a 5-acre parcel in Paradise Valley for a mere $9.65 Million.
Some of the best values in lots are in the North Valley. There are some custom new home communities that, like others, got crunched in the Great Recession a decade ago. Tramonto Estates and Ponticello, are two gated communities near the Carefree Highway and #17. These private estate-like lots are ready to build including all utilities, and paved roads. Prices there start at $99,000 for a hillside lot. One acre lot prices in nearby New River, north of the Carefree Highway start at $29,500.
If interested at all, let us know and we’d be happy to help you search for that right parcel of dirt!
Next week we’ll compare the rewards, challenges and costs to build new, versus buying in a new home community.