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Most Dunn & Stone custom homes land between $500,000 and $1.5 million. In our part of Texas, our homes cost about $180 to $250 per square foot to build in 2026, and across our recent builds the average lands near $213 per foot. That rate covers the home itself and some basic lot prep, but not the land under it.
Dunn & Stone has built more than 1,000 homes in the Greater Houston area since 1999, and the figures on this page come from our own recent builds, not a national estimator.
Per square foot is a fair way to start a budget. It just isn't a final number yet. Two builders can quote rates far apart and both be telling the truth, because they are counting different things.
A Dunn & Stone custom home runs about $180 per square foot with our included features, about $213 with moderate selections, and about $250 for a highly featured home or a very small footprint, before land. Those figures come from our recent North Houston builds. The rate moves with your finishes more than anything else. Land is separate, and while some lot prep is built in, a longer driveway or a sloped lot that needs imported fill can add to it.
Texas is a big state, and rates shift from one market to the next. Our tiers reflect homes we build across Montgomery County, Conroe, The Woodlands and the wider North Houston area, so they are a solid guide for this part of Texas and a reasonable starting point elsewhere, once you adjust for your local market.
This rate leaves out your land, your utility connections, and any special foundation your site needs. Some lot prep is built in, and we price the rest for your lot, so you see all of it in your quote before you sign.
The per-square-foot price is based on living area. It leaves out your lot. Some lot prep is built into our base price, and we price the rest for your specific lot during Exploration.
A builder can advertise a low rate by keeping site work and upgrades out of the base. Another builder quotes higher because the rate already carries those costs.
When you compare bids, ask each builder what the per-foot figure includes. The difference between two quotes often lives in what got left out.
Cost per square foot is the construction price divided by the home's living area. We usually figure it on heated living area, the conditioned space you live in every day, and our calculator works the same way, with the garage and porch left out.
Garages, covered porches and patios sit under the roof too. A builder who divides by the total under roof will show a lower per-foot rate than one who divides by living area, even when the two homes cost the same. So ask which number a quote is using before you compare.
Take our moderate-selections rate as an example. A 2,000-square-foot home at about $213 per square foot comes to about $426,000 in construction, before land.
And the same math works in reverse. Divide your construction budget by a tier rate, and you get a working idea of how much home that budget builds.
Selections move the rate more than any other choice. We price three rough levels, and the steps between them are steady.
A home with our included features lands around $180 per square foot. Those features build a strong, well-finished house on their own.
A moderate set of selections adds about $33 per foot and brings you to our $213 average. A highly featured home adds about $37 more and runs closer to $250.
Smaller homes surprise people. A 1,600-square-foot home can cost more per foot than a 3,000-square-foot one. The kitchen and the major systems get packed into less area.
The build type shapes your rate before you pick a single finish. A production home usually carries the lowest base rate, a full custom home the highest, and semi-custom work falls between the two.
Our active builds run from about $180 to about $250 per square foot, with the portfolio average at $213. That puts us in the semi-custom and mid-range custom band, and most of our finished homes land between $500K and $1.5M. If your plans reach well past our top tier, we're glad to point you toward builders who specialize in that kind of home. Our semi-custom homes model is how we hold that rate steady without thinning the finish.
The most expensive surprises I see come from quotes that left things off.
A complete quote should already carry your driveway, your utility connections, your lot preparation, and any special foundation your lot calls for. When a number looks low, that is usually where the rest of the money sits.
Our guide to what's included in a fixed-price custom home contract shows what a complete contract should cover. Our hidden costs of building a house guide covers the items that get skipped most often.
Lot preparation is the line item most likely to move your budget. We build lot prep into our base price, but the final total depends on your lot.
Longer driveways and sloped lots drive most of it. A lot that needs imported fill or extra grading costs more to get ready before we pour a slab. Our guide to how homesite conditions affect custom home costs walks through what we look for on a site visit. We walk every lot before we write a contract, so this cost shows up in your budget before you sign, not after.
Waterfront lots are their own case. We have built on several Lake Conroe lots where the slope down to the water called for a pier-and-beam foundation. That can add $65,000 to $120,000.
If you are buying land, our buying land in Texas guide covers what to check before you close. Our build-on-your-lot page explains how we handle owned-lot projects.
Permits add cost and time, and the amount depends on where your lot sits. Most counties in our area turn around a permit application in two to three weeks. Counties are usually affordable to work with.
Cities are a different story. When we build inside a municipality, permitting alone often adds $5,000 or more. The city can also require specific building practices that add another $3,000 to $6,000.
Flood rules have tightened too. Flood maps in Harris County now limit how much fill you can bring in to raise a home above the base flood elevation, and Montgomery County is moving the same direction.
Our Montgomery County permit guide walks through the local process.
As a rough planning sketch, not a line-item study, a typical project splits about like this: about 20% for land, 30% for the structure, 20% for mechanical systems, 20% for finishes and cabinets, and 10% for land prep and landscaping.
Your own split shifts with your lot and your selections. A wooded, sloped lot pushes the land-prep share up. A finish-heavy interior pushes the cabinet and materials share up.
Multiplying a home's living area by one of our three rates gives you a working construction budget. Here is how a 2,000 square foot plan comes out at each finish level.
All figures are construction only, before land.
Smaller homes are a different part of the market. Across Texas, a basic builder-grade 1,500 square foot new home typically costs about $270,000 to $420,000 to build before land, according to the HomeGuide 2026 Texas cost guide. That is a market figure, not a Dunn & Stone price. Our custom homes typically land between $500,000 and $1.5 million.
Larger homes follow the same three rates, and our guide to the full cost to build a house in the Houston area shows bigger sizes, before land. For a number tied to your actual plan and selections, our cost to build a house calculator gets you closer than any table can.
A handful of decisions account for most of the spread between a $180 home and a $250 one.
Design complexity comes first. Rooflines and ceiling heights add labor and material. Dropping secondary-room ceilings from ten feet to nine feet is one of the most reliable savings we see on a typical plan, with no hit to how the home lives.
Exterior materials are the next lever. We work from a veneer scale that runs from full lap siding at the low end up to full stone and stucco at the top. Moving up that scale is one of the clearest ways to raise or lower your rate.
A few specific upgrades move the number fast. A set of stacking sliding doors, sixteen feet wide and eight feet tall, is one of the biggest single upgrades we price. Stepping up to a premium HVAC system costs more than our standard two-stage setup, which is already sized for Houston humidity. Going to a satin paint finish costs close to twice the base, since any mark means repainting a wall edge to edge.
Your lot and foundation come last here, but they still matter to the budget. Homes above 3,000 square feet usually need two air-conditioning systems, which adds cost. The soil and slope of your lot decide how much foundation work you need before anything goes vertical.
Costs shift across Texas with the local labor market and with code. A build in the Hill Country or a major metro core can price higher than a suburban build of the same plan. Parts of East Texas can run lower.
We build within a 60-mile radius of our Pinehurst office. In our market, the lot drives more of the variation than the city line does, since soil and tree clearing affect your site and foundation cost more than the base rate.
You can see where we build on our service area page.
My goal on every job is for the contract number to be the closing number. We aim for zero change orders, which means we do the important work up front to understand everything our clients are hoping for so the price stays put later.
Most budget overruns trace back to decisions made late. We run design as a step-by-step process. The projects that stay on budget are the ones where owners finish each decision before moving to the next. When settled choices get reopened near the end, the cost and the timeline both stretch.
From first agreement to move-in, most of our builds run 9 to 14 months. The construction phase itself averages about 210 days across our recent jobs. To see how we build the number before you sign, our pricing approach page lays it out. Our build timeline guide covers what to expect from design through move-in.
It's a fair question, and buying an existing home is faster and often cheaper up front. Building costs more in time and usually in money, but you control the layout and the finishes. When you have a specific home in mind that resale will not give you, building is how you get it.
Yes, for a smaller, basic home. Across Texas, HomeGuide's 2026 cost guide puts a builder-grade 1,000 square foot home at about $180,000 to $280,000 to build and a 1,500 square foot home at about $270,000 to $420,000, both before land. If you would rather buy new, new home communities in Conroe list at a median near $325,000 on Realtor.com as of October 2026. Those are market figures, not our prices. Dunn & Stone custom homes typically land between $500,000 and $1.5 million.
We'd love to help you stretch it, though for a full custom home, $200,000 is tight. At about $180 per square foot, it covers about 1,100 square feet of construction, before land. A budget that size fits a very small build or a major renovation better than a custom home.
It's a helpful size to price out. Across Texas, a basic builder-grade 1,500 square foot new home typically costs about $270,000 to $420,000 to build before land, and a custom one about $420,000 to $600,000, according to HomeGuide's 2026 Texas cost guide. Those are market averages, not our prices. Dunn & Stone custom homes typically land between $500,000 and $1.5 million.
A 2,000-square-foot home is a useful size to plan around, and at our rates it runs about $360,000 with included features, about $426,000 with moderate selections, and about $500,000 highly featured, before land. Your selections decide which of those numbers you land closest to.
From first agreement to move-in, most of our builds run 9 to 14 months. The construction phase itself averages about 210 days across our recent jobs. Settling decisions early is the best way to keep a build on schedule.
Permits add a modest cost in a county and more inside a city, so it's worth knowing early which one your lot is in. Most counties in our area turn permits around in two to three weeks. Inside a city, permitting often adds $5,000 or more, plus another $3,000 to $6,000 if the city requires specific building practices.
A bigger house can, though size alone will not decide it. A larger home spreads some fixed costs over more area, which can lower the rate. Bigger homes also tend to add features that push the per-foot number back up.
A per-square-foot rate is a fair place to begin. Your real cost depends on your lot and your selections, and on what your builder wrote into the contract. So plan around a quote that shows every cost up front.
If you want a figure tied to your own plan, our calculator will get you close in a few minutes. And when you're ready to talk through a fixed, transparent quote, we'd love to help you schedule a consultation with my team.
Fred Loucks is the CEO of Dunn & Stone Builders. He joined the company in 2010 and purchased it in 2019. Since 2010 he has been the primary point of contact for plan design and for turning buyer goals into buildable, budgeted plans.
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