Building a home in Oklahoma involves various costs. Learn about the average expenses and key factors that influence the total cost.
As anyone who has shopped for a new home lately will know, housing prices have been on the high side for the last few years—with demand remaining high against a finite supply. While falling interest rates have helped tip the scales back toward “normal,” aspiring homebuyers in Oklahoma and other parts of the country are still taking alternative paths toward their dream homes.
One increasingly popular path is building homes from the ground up. Rather than deal with an unpredictable real estate market or wait for rates to drop even lower, Oklahoma residents are choosing to build their dreams brick by brick. But what is the total cost to build a home in Oklahoma? Let’s find out — then see how Truehold can help you on your homebuilding journey.
In many ways, Oklahoma is the perfect place to build a new home. The 20th-largest state has thousands of acres of land available, with multi-acre plots right in the heart of Oklahoma City going for as low as $50,000 in some cases. And if Oklahoma City isn’t your speed, the state boasts countless cities and neighborhoods, each with its own unique charm — meaning there’s something for everyone. Add that to a relatively low cost of living, and it makes sense why more people are choosing to build anew in Oklahoma.
To meet this increasing demand, Oklahoma has more than a handful of professional homebuilders. These range from highly customizable spec homebuilders like the Oklahoma City- and Tulsa-based Ideal Homes to the fully bespoke Oak Leaf Custom Homes in North Oklahoma City. No matter your price range, location, or preference for customization, there’s a homebuilder in Oklahoma ready to bring your dream to life or design the dream home you didn’t even know you wanted.
The abundance of builders in Oklahoma has prevented a bottleneck from developing, and the timeline to build a new home in The Sooner State is in line with the national average of around nine months. This may vary from builder to builder and home to home, but most soon-to-be homeowners can expect to move into their property in under a year.1
There’s an abundance of builders and even more land, but what is the cost of building a home in Oklahoma? According to the real estate platform Houzeo, building a new home in Oklahoma costs an average of $260,000. However, this figure doesn’t include things like plots of land and permitting fees, which can drive the price up to $400,000+.2
That can seem like a lot, especially considering the median sale price for homes in Oklahoma is currently hovering around just $260,000. But when you zoom out and take a look at the cost of building a new home in the rest of the country, $400,000 begins to look like a bargain.3 Including the cost of land, the national average to build a single-family home is a whopping $644,000. This means that choosing to build in Oklahoma can save you around 40 percent compared to the rest of the country.4
While you’re pretty much guaranteed to save money building a home in Oklahoma, the countless variables contributing to homebuilding costs mean your actual savings may vary.
Many pieces go into building a home, and we’re not just talking about nails and shingles. Rather, we’re referring to all the moving parts involved with building from the ground up—from your chosen location to relocation costs—which will each greatly impact the cost of a new home.
Where you choose to build your home will have potentially the biggest impact on how much it costs to build. In Oklahoma City and Tulsa, two of the state’s largest markets, 1-acre lots can range from a few thousand dollars to well over $300,000. This high degree of variation, even within these two cities, highlights the importance of shopping around for the right neighborhood to avoid overspending on land costs.
Building materials can also weigh heavily on the cost of building a new home — and have a tendency to fluctuate. As is the case with lumber, which has gone from record highs in 2021 to a current record low. It can be difficult to pin down the price of these building materials, making it hard to know exactly how much material costs will be when building a home.5
While labor can also fluctuate, these labor fluctuations typically happen when the demand for builders changes. Therefore, the key to saving money to build a home becomes timing your home build correctly. Because of longer days and school schedules, summer is the most popular time to build — meaning if you can plan your build for earlier or later in the year, you won’t be paying extra to compete for labor.
Some factors indirectly influence the cost of building a home. Housing costs, for example, can drive up the overall cost of building a new home. For some homeowners, this can mean continuing to pay for an existing mortgage while the new home is being built. For others, it can mean selling a home, using the home equity to finance the new build, paying to move, and renting until the new home construction is complete. Either way, this indirect cost of building a home can be sizable.
With everything that goes into building a home, it can be surprising to some that the process should be completed in under a year. From purchasing your plot of land to completing your final walkthrough, here’s a brief step-by-step look at what building a home in Oklahoma entails.
Between different cities, neighborhoods, and levels of customization, there’s a lot to figure out before you break ground on your new build. By taking all the time you need to conduct thorough research, you give your future home the best chance of living up to your dreams.
This is where you’ll explore financing options for building a home and where you’ll realize that getting a loan for a new build is a bit different than financing an already-built home. With a construction-to-permanent loan, however, you can automatically transition from a construction loan to a traditional mortgage as soon as construction is complete.6
Once you’ve done your due diligence, picked out a plot, and landed on a design style, you can begin assembling your build team. This can sound a bit like pulling together a team of superheroes one by one, but in reality, you’ll likely just be picking one of Oklahoma’s many design-build firms that will assign a fully staffed team to your project. With that said, this team can set the tone for the next nine months, so be sure to get face-to-face, ask questions, and ensure that your home is in good hands. Whether you opt for a spec home or a completely custom one, discuss your design with your chosen builder to see how it will be brought to life.
Alongside your build team, you can begin pulling the necessary permits and getting your land ready for building. In most cases, they’ll handle the heavy lifting and the paperwork for you. But if you feel like digging the first shovel of dirt to kick off the construction process, don’t be afraid to ask!
From here, the foundation is poured and inspected, and the “bones” of your home are put in place, including things like sewers, drains, and the home’s frame.
With the building blocks in place, things quickly begin to pick up speed: windows and doors go in, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical are installed, and the home gets a roof. And now that the house is fully protected from the elements, the interior can begin taking shape. Expect drywall, insulation, cabinetry, appliances, and other fixtures to find their new homes, too.
On the outside, siding and landscaping are being completed, in addition to finishing touches like window and door sills.
Coats of paint, flooring, trim, and other final, finer details are completed before you and your build team conducts a final walkthrough to ensure your dream is exactly what you hoped it would be. Be sure to pay close attention to every nook and cranny—now is your last chance before closing to ensure everything is perfect.
After combing through your home with a fine tooth, it’s time to sign on the dotted line, collect your keys, and settle in!
Looking at the variables influencing the price of building a home in Oklahoma and the many steps involved, it’s easy to see how this process can become a costly endeavor. However, that also means there are many opportunities to reduce your expenses along the way.
One of the simplest ways to reduce homebuilding costs is by conducting extremely thorough research before the construction process begins. If you’re set on Oklahoma City or Tulsa, explore some of these cities’ more under-the-radar neighborhoods to get a better deal on land and potentially even spend less on labor. In Oklahoma City, places like the Paseo Arts District and the more suburban Classen Ten Penn fit the bill. In Tulsa, looking at Oakhurst or Catoosa can help you save money without sacrificing your quality of living. Seeing as land and labor costs make up a significant portion of building costs, the right location can set you on a course toward savings.
Another way to reduce your home building costs is to time your build right. As we mentioned earlier, labor costs can fluctuate depending on whether your build takes place in the “off-season” or during a peak building time. For the most part, however, the savings you see from timing your build right will result from not having to compete for your chosen build team, or resort to a more costly builder to complete your project within your desired time frame. Some experts say that late summer and early fall months are the best time to build a home, but this can vary from place to place.7
Land and labor expenses account for a large portion of the cost of home construction. But some of the more minor expenses have a tendency to add up, like the money you might pay on temporary housing and storage while your home is being built. If you sell your home first and use your equity to finance your build, this could mean nine months of paying rent on both a storage unit and a housing unit.
But with Truehold’s sell-and-stay transaction, you can access your valuable home equity, then stay put in your home while your new property is being built. This allows you to sell your home while still remaining there as a renter, helping you avoid temporary housing and investing in a storage unit. This means no unnecessary moves or expenses, and no stress if your build takes longer than expected.
Truehold’s sell-and-stay transaction has helped so many homeowners find financial freedom. It can also help homebuilders finance their dreams with added flexibility — all while saving them money in the process.
For Oklahomans, building a home can be a viable alternative to buying an existing property. And beyond avoiding the challenges of the housing market, choosing to build also affords you a creative freedom seldom found elsewhere. But this freedom comes at a cost, and it will be up to you to decide if it’s worth $400,000 or more.
If you decide this freedom is worth it, consider Truehold to keep costs lower, remain in your familiar home as a renter while your dream home is being built, and avoid months’ worth of unnecessary living expenses in the process. To learn more, explore Truehold’s Oklahoma City page and Tulsa sell and stay transaction and how it can help you on your homebuilding journey in Oklahoma.
Sources:
1. Angi. How Long Does It Take to Build a House from Start to Finish? https://www.angi.com/articles/how-long-does-it-take-build-house.htm
2. Houzeo. How Much Does It Cost to Build a House in Oklahoma in 2024? https://www.houzeo.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-house-oklahoma/
3. Bankrate. Oklahoma housing market. https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/housing-market/ok/
4. Ramsey Solutions. How Much Does It Cost to Build a House? https://www.ramseysolutions.com/real-estate/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-house
5. MarketWatch. Lumber prices are at record lows — what that means for buyers and homebuilders. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lumber-prices-are-at-record-lows-what-that-means-for-buyers-and-homebuilders-a5e1b4c9
6. NerdWallet. How Construction Loans Help Finance Your Dream Home. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/mortgages/construction-loans
7. Meadowlark Builders. What’s the Best Time of Year to Build a Custom House? https://www.meadowlarkbuilders.com/blog/whats-the-best-time-of-year-to-build-a-custom-home
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