Prefabs Cost Too Much
Annie and I are at a point in our lives when we’re excited about the prospect of owning a home. Right now we rent half of a duplex, and there are many times we wish we could do things like paint the walls, renovate the kitchen, and really dig up the yard. We want a space we can really make our own.
Of course, the traditional way to do things would be to get a realtor and start looking at houses, but I can’t help notice the hype that prefab homes have been getting. If you read green blogs like Inhabitat and Treehugger, you can’t escape all the posts about the modern, enviromentally-friendly prefabs. I’d love to own one, but there’s a catch: they’re still way too expensive.
Now, maybe it’s because when you think of prefab you think of manufactured homes. These homes are mass-produced in warehouses (like many prefabs), but they can keep their costs as low as $50-75/sqft. That’s really cheap, even if you consider that you have to buy the land to put the home on, as well as any other improvements (like sewer, water, etc.). A 1500 sqft home would only be $75,000! An existing home, say 1500 sqft at $175,000 would be about $116/sqft, and that’s including the land and all improvements.
Now, I’ve tried to find cheap modern prefabs, but I’ve had no luck. I know that no matter what I’ll pay extra for some of the environmental features and modern fixtures, but most prefab prices I’ve seen are outrageous. In fact, most architects don’t list their prices at all. I could be wrong about this, but from reading countless prefab blog posts, I get the sense that people are excited about the trend toward prefab housing. I just don’t see how this trend will fully develop if it compares poorly price-wise to conventional housing.
I will say that there are some promising prefab joints out there. One of my favorites is Hive Modular (who I must credit for the photo above). Their square foot costs are still crazy high at $175/sqft in the Midwest, but they offer a traditional styling option on their homes and their floorplans aren’t weird and modernist. Their houses look like they would suit a typical family.
So, until the prefab trend makes a turn for the cheaper, I think I’ll have to settle for renovating an existing home. And, if you think about it, isn’t it better for the environment to buy an existing home? It’s one of the best forms of recycling.
# • Posted on Jun 17, 2008 • Tags: