Ready to have your mind blown
It costs over $100,000 on average to build a single family home in California just in fees
This isn’t building, labor, or materials, this is just bureaucracy
- Pure building permit plan review fees for a new single-family home are often in the $20,000 - $40,000 range
- Total “soft costs,” meaning permits impact fees, school fees, utility connections, environmental reviews, traffic mitigation, parks, etc often reach $100,000 in major cities and counties
- One home in Fremont cost $160,000 just in government fees before any building started
Contrast this with Texas
Texas base building permits for a new single-family home are typically $1,000–$3,000. Impact and development fees average under $1,000 per unit
San Francisco planned on spending $1.7 million to build a public toilet, after extreme backlash online they were able to build it for around $200,000 and it’s now open