New Homes and Major Renovations

Average costs per square foot to build or add an addition on to a your home

Home construction will probably cost between $80 and $200 per square foot

To begin, we consider what square foot homebuilding costs really are — nothing more than the total cost of a given project divided by the total number of square feet in that project. So, a 2,000 square foot home with total construction costs of $250,000 would cost $125 per square foot to build.

The right home improvement products, techniques, and services:
Contractors, home improvement stores, and specialty shops in your area may not yet have a complete familiarity with the ‘green’ opportunities, products, system integration, and overall savings potential. So, you may get some resistance, since people in general are typically more comfortable recommending something that they are already familiar with rather than something new.

Builders can claim that their homes are energy efficient. But many of the energy efficiency features in a home are not visible, so how can home buyers really be sure? Look for homes that have earned the ENERGY STAR—these homes have had their energy efficiency independently verified by an inspector known as a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater.

HERS raters are trained to evaluate construction techniques, take key measurements, and perform inspections and testing procedures to verify a home’s energy-efficient performance. Here’s how the home inspection and testing process works:

Selection of Energy-Efficient Features: HERS raters help builders choose energy-efficient features for their ENERGY STAR qualified homes in two ways.

1. With a traditional HERS rating, a HERS rater simulates a home’s energy use with specialized computer software.