For some time I have been tracking price per square foot trends for all single family homes in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.  These appear in my monthly market report, and show a median price per square foot of $80/sf back in 2002, a high of $131/sf in 2006 and a current value of $123/sf.

In talking to a potential developer last week, he inquired about price per square foot trends for new construction.  This isn't an easy thing to calculate, for several reasons:

• We don't have a consistently used "New Construction" field in our MLS. 
• Single family homes built on larger parcels would inflate the median price per square foot
• Finished and unfinished basement square footage can muddy the waters.

We devised a plan to account for two of these three challenges.  First, I would search in any given year for homes reported as being built that year or the year prior (for 2003 homes, I'd look for 2003 closings where the home was reported as being built in 2002 or 2003).  I'd also limit the search to homes built on lots of one acre or less to remove the value of the land as a significant factor.

Below you will see the results, with a starting value of $99/sf in 2002, a high of $150/sf in 2006, and a current value of $140/sf.



I also graphed the number of applicable home sales in each year since 2002 to put the market into perspective.  Click here, or on the image above, for a clearer PDF version of this graph.

Closing thoughts:

• This represents all single family homes, regardless of size or location.
• If you're pricing a new construction home to sell, you'll need a more specific analysis to address your level of construction quality, the location of the building lot, etc.
• If you are evaluating a builder's proposal, please bear in mind that these figures are based on homes sold as total packages, thus including water/sewer/well/septic, driveways, sidewalks, etc.