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Fred Loucks is CEO of Dunn & Stone Builders. He joined the company in 2010 as purchasing manager, bought it in 2019, and works with families on plan design. Dunn & Stone has built more than 1,000 homes in the Greater Houston area since 1999.
In the Greater Houston area in 2026, a custom home typically costs $180 to $250 per square foot before land. Our current portfolio averages $213 per square foot.
Nationally, the latest NAHB Cost of Constructing a Home survey puts construction-only cost at about $162 per square foot for a typical 2,647-square-foot home. Treat that national figure as a yardstick. Finish level, the lot, and the jurisdiction move your number more than the headline average does.
At Dunn & Stone I price from finish level, not from a size band. Current contracts land in three places.
Those rates cover the house. They do not cover the land, the work to make a lot buildable, long utility runs, or a special foundation.
NAHB's 2024 survey, published in January 2025, is the last official national benchmark. Construction of a typical new single-family home came in at $428,215, or about $162 per square foot on 2,647 square feet of finished area. Construction accounted for 64.4 percent of the average $665,298 sales price. The finished lot averaged $91,057.
Our $213 average sits above that national construction rate because the survey mixes production and custom work across the country. Houston labor is not New England labor. A mid-range custom house here also carries more selections than a typical tract house in the NAHB sample.
Current builds have run from the high $170s per square foot on the efficient end to $250 on the featured end. Above about $300 per square foot I tell a buyer another builder is a better fit.
A larger house uses the same three rates. It is just more of them.
A smaller house often lands toward the featured column. Permits, the pad, and the mechanical systems have fixed pieces that do not shrink when the plan shrinks.
For how the per-square-foot rate is built, see cost per square foot to build a house in Texas.
Two houses with the same floor area can finish far apart on price. Most of that gap is what you put in the house. The rest is the lot and the city or county that has to approve it.
Feature load is the first driver. A 16-foot-wide by 8-foot-tall stacking sliding door runs $15,000 to $16,000. Flooring is the next line people upgrade. Kitchen and primary bath finishes follow.
A satin paint package costs close to twice the base paint because satin cannot be spot-touched. Any scuff means repainting the whole wall. Vertical siding lands close to brick once you count the labor on each strip and each fastener hole.
The second driver is the lot. A longer driveway, imported fill, or a slope down to water changes the number before framing starts. Lot prep above what the base house already includes currently averages $20,000 to $30,000. That used to run $50,000 to $60,000 before more site work was folded into the base price. How soil, slope, flood elevation, and utilities stack is covered in how homesite conditions affect custom home costs.
The third driver is the jurisdiction. County permitting in Greater Houston is usually two to three weeks and straightforward. Inside a city, permitting commonly starts at $5,000, and required building practices can add another $3,000 to $6,000. Harris County has gotten stricter about bringing in fill to raise a house above Base Flood Elevation. Montgomery County is moving the same direction.
Two decisions cut cost without touching the floor plan. Nine-foot ceilings in secondary rooms instead of ten save about $10,000. Stepping down the exterior veneer mix, from a heavy stone-and-stucco front toward more lap siding, is the other clean cut.
Buying an existing house is usually the cheaper way to get into a comparable square footage. NAHB's all-in new-home sales figure of $665,298 includes the lot, overhead, and builder profit, not just construction. An existing house does not ask you to fund that full stack at once.
That is the national picture. The Greater Houston picture right now is different.
Resale asks here have been high enough that some families can build a replacement house for less than, or about the same as, the price of the house they would sell. Inquiry volume has followed that gap. A few under-contract clients are waiting on their current house to sell before construction can start.
You get new systems and a plan that fits the lot. You also accept design time, permitting, and a construction calendar.
Resale wins when the goal is the lowest check and the fastest move-in. The build conversation is the right one when the house has to match how the family actually lives, even if the two prices sit close.
Lot preparation above our included scope currently averages $20,000 to $30,000. Driveway length and imported fill are the reasons it climbs.
On a sloped lot down to water, pier-and-beam can add $65,000 to $120,000. That is the waterfront adder on sloped lots here. It is the slope, not a lake premium on the finishes.
Taking down an existing house so a new one can go on the same lot typically runs $17,000 to $30,000 for a standard structure. A large, poorly built two-story has run higher. Demo is a separate line from the new-house rate. The full teardown path lives in cost to demolish and rebuild.
Land is its own check. So are long utility runs, a well and septic system, and finish landscaping. Those are the items that make a $213-per-square-foot quote feel low when someone treats it as an all-in budget. The hidden costs of building a house article walks that list.
Start with the plan and the finish level so you know whether the house sits near $180, $213, or $250 per square foot. Then evaluate the homesite before anyone writes a contract. Soil, drainage, utility distance, and the jurisdiction belong in that first number.
Dunn & Stone locks a fixed contract price after that work. The number you sign is the number you close. When a late change happens, the client steers it.
I have watched a buyer almost sign with another builder who added about $70,000 at the final meeting because the site plan had left off the driveway and the power to the house. That is what a house-only quote looks like in practice.
Use our cost-to-build calculator to get a working range from size and finish level. Then walk the lot.
In Greater Houston the house itself typically runs $180 to $250 per square foot. Building from raw land then adds the lot, lot prep, utilities, and permits. Those site lines vary by the parcel.
NAHB's latest survey puts national construction cost at about $162 per square foot. At Dunn & Stone the current portfolio average is about $213 per square foot.
A 2,000-square-foot custom home in Greater Houston runs about $360,000 to $500,000 for construction only. Moderate selections land near $426,000. Land and lot prep are extra.
A 2,500-square-foot custom home runs about $450,000 to $625,000 for construction only. Moderate selections land near $533,000.
A 3,000-square-foot custom home runs about $540,000 to $750,000 for construction only.
Buying an existing house is usually cheaper if the only goal is a lower check and a faster move-in. In Greater Houston some families can build a replacement for less than, or about the same as, the resale ask on the house they would sell.
No. The $180 to $250 per-square-foot figures are construction only. Land, lot prep, long utility runs, and municipal extras are separate lines.
Five hundred thousand dollars can cover a 2,000-square-foot home at included or moderate finishes if you already own a buildable lot and site work stays ordinary. It does not stretch across a featured 2,500-square-foot plan plus land.
Feature load inside the house and the condition of the lot. Stacking sliders, flooring, and kitchen and bath upgrades move the per-foot rate. Slope, fill, and utility distance move the number that sits beside it.
In Greater Houston, custom work runs about $180 to $250 per square foot before land, averaging about $213. The rest of Texas is a wider band, and rural counties north and west of Houston are often simpler on permits than a municipal build.
Every lot and every finish list changes the math. If you already have land or a plan, schedule a free consultation and we will put a number on that combination.
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