What is actually in the price
of a new home.

Walk into a model home in South Jersey and there is an asking price posted out front. Ask what it would cost to own that house, on a particular lot, with the things in it you just walked through, and the answer is a different figure. That gap is not a trick. It is how new construction is priced, and it is easier to shop once you can see the pieces separately.

The first piece is the base home. That is the floor plan as the builder offers it, built to the specification it comes with and nothing added. Every builder has a standard set of finishes, fixtures and features that a plan includes at its base price, and those sets are not the same from one builder to the next. Two plans advertised at similar base numbers can include quite different things, which is the first reason a straight comparison between two communities can mislead.

The second piece is the lot. The same house does not cost the same on every homesite, and the difference runs both directions. A larger lot, a corner, a wooded backyard, a cul de sac position or a walkout basement grade will tend to carry more than an interior lot on flat ground. Sometimes a homesite carries less because of its shape, its access or what sits behind it. This is the part buyers are most often surprised by, because the plan is identical and the price is not.

The third piece is the upgrades, which are the choices made when the contract is signed and afterward at the design centre. Flooring, cabinetry, countertops, lighting, a finished basement, a wider driveway, a structural option that changes the plan itself. This is where the widest variation between two houses of the same model comes from, and it is also the part with the most room to decide what actually matters to you. Structural choices generally have to be made earliest, because they change how the house is framed.

Other things can move a new construction number too, depending on the community and the stage it is at, so treat those three as the shape of a price rather than a complete list. The practical advice is simple enough: when you are comparing two communities, ask each one what the base home includes, what the homesite adds, and what the houses in the model actually cost as shown. Compared that way, the numbers start meaning the same thing. Anything about what a specific contract says is a question for a licensed New Jersey attorney.

General information about how new construction pricing is put together. What a specific builder includes at base price, and what a particular homesite carries, varies by community. Written by Justin Kelly, NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson. More at South Jersey New Construction.