How much does a significant expansion on a cape cod home cost?

[Anonymous]

Went on a walk through Kensington the other day and I noticed that there are so many small boxy original cape cod homes that have been significantly expanded. Essentially, the original one story brick frame of the home exists, but then everything else has been re done — extended the foundation for an addition, added a front porch, whole larger second floor placed on top. Assuming someone used basic finishes, really basic cabinets, no custom built-ins, how much does a big expansion like this cost? If you have one of these what was your experience like doing this big rebuild?

[Anonymous]

I once asked this same question pre-COVID and it was a minimum 150K for a basic addition.

So I imagine today it's 300+?

[Anonymous]

Our cape cod was always 2 levels, 20 years ago we blew out the back and added a 2 story addition, family room below and main bedroom/bath above. We also redid the front porch at that time, as well as gutted the kitchen and 2 full bathrooms. Back then we budgeted $300k and it ended up costing $328k. My guess is it would be at least double that now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our cape cod was always 2 levels, 20 years ago we blew out the back and added a 2 story addition, family room below and main bedroom/bath above. We also redid the front porch at that time, as well as gutted the kitchen and 2 full bathrooms. Back then we budgeted $300k and it ended up costing $328k. My guess is it would be at least double that now

This seems right to me. About 4 years ago, we had an architect design and got bids for a two story extension for a non-cape cod house. The bids came in around $600k. This was in the middle between high end and builder grade.

[Anonymous]

800K +

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our cape cod was always 2 levels, 20 years ago we blew out the back and added a 2 story addition, family room below and main bedroom/bath above. We also redid the front porch at that time, as well as gutted the kitchen and 2 full bathrooms. Back then we budgeted $300k and it ended up costing $328k. My guess is it would be at least double that now

This seems right to me. About 4 years ago, we had an architect design and got bids for a two story extension for a non-cape cod house. The bids came in around $600k. This was in the middle between high end and builder grade.

We did something similar 5 years ago near Kensington MD and it was about $450k all in. Contract signed just before Covid and we were spared most of the inflationary construction costs during the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. With the small starter homes in Bethesda going for 1.1M, it seems like it doesn’t make sense to plan to buy one and add on. If the ultimate cost is closer to 1.7M you may as well just buy new. It might make sense for somewhere farther out where the small home value is lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. With the small starter homes in Bethesda going for 1.1M, it seems like it doesn’t make sense to plan to buy one and add on. If the ultimate cost is closer to 1.7M you may as well just buy new. It might make sense for somewhere farther out where the small home value is lower.

You are correct.

[Anonymous]

Most of those $1M starter homes in Bethesda get bought by developers who then list the new builds for $2M+. No one is buying those homes to add on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. With the small starter homes in Bethesda going for 1.1M, it seems like it doesn’t make sense to plan to buy one and add on. If the ultimate cost is closer to 1.7M you may as well just buy new. It might make sense for somewhere farther out where the small home value is lower.

PP who renovated/added on here - the above is true, but we'd been in our small old house for 15+ years so we paid much less than the current prices. But the differential to tear down or buy a new build was at least twice what it cost us to completely rehab and expand our current home. And for what it would have cost to trade up to a slightly bigger, slightly more updated house, it made much more sense to renovate our existing space for what we needed.

[Anonymous]

Apparently there’s a guy in Fairfax who can build you an extra six bedrooms and six bathrooms for only $200,000. Maybe find out he’s doing it so cheaply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of those $1M starter homes in Bethesda get bought by developers who then list the new builds for $2M+. No one is buying those homes to add on.

Yep. We bought a shack in Arlington and the cost to gut reno + pop up vs full teardown and build new 4K square foot home is basically the same give or take $100K. That’s for mid-range finishes. Crazy…