Affordable House Plans

What Is an Affordable House Plan?

An affordable house plan is a budget-friendly home with minimal finishes, open layouts, and other optional key features like energy-efficient appliances and windows. However, the best part about affordable homes is that they are just that: They’re economical to build—without compromising key features.

Depending on where you want to build your home and the types of features you want, building an affordable home can range significantly. To start, the United States’ average cost per square foot (sq ft) is around $114. This means that mansions (which are at least 8,000 sq ft) can cost nearly $1 million to construct, and that’s without additional costs, like labor and materials.

Affordable to build house plans are generally on the small-to-medium end, which puts them in the range of about 800 to 2,000 sq ft.

At $114 per sq ft, it may cost $90,000 to $230,000 to build an affordable home.

This might seem like a lot out-of-pocket, but even with labor, products, and other additions, constructing from the ground-up is often still less expensive than buying brand-new.

What Makes a House Plan “Affordable”?

The key to an affordable house plan is to utilize your space as much as possible.

Try to keep everything centralized, including living areas, bedroom spaces, heating, air conditioning, and plumbing. It’s wise to place bathrooms back-to-back so that they can share plumbing, which requires fewer pipes and less labor.

Laundry rooms can share plumbing with kitchens as well.

A perfect example of an affordable house plan: This Craftsman is only 1500 sq ft with simple finishes and an open floor plan in the living space.

Another good idea is to install efficient appliances and windows in your home.

While these are more expensive to purchase brand-new, these efforts can help you save money long-term because of their lower operating costs. This means you can save plenty on your home’s heating, cooling, and other energy costs, especially during winter and summer when the temperature reaches extreme highs and lows.

Benefits of Affordable Home Plans

When you decide to build your own home, costs tend to add up quickly. Interior and exterior finishes take up nearly half of the building cost. That’s why many homeowners opt for more affordable homes: Simpler homes have fewer products inside, which means fewer costs.

However, finding an affordable house plan is much more than just finding an inexpensive house to build. It also means that the home should be less expensive to develop and own and include affordable finishing products.

Benefit #1: Construction Is Less Expensive

As you can imagine, a medium-sized home in the suburbs will be less expensive to build and own than a beachside mansion. You can get a better idea of what you might pay for affordable house plans with an estimated cost to build calculator.

Benefit #2: They’re Cheaper To Own

When you’re saving on space, you’re also saving on time, labor, materials, and other costs. Although it somewhat depends on where you want to build, simple structures are less expensive because there is less square footage and fewer finishes to add.

Benefit #3: Use Affordable Finishing Products

When building a home, most homeowners want the best they can get. This might include granite countertops, high-end appliances, real hardwood flooring, and crown molding.

While these materials aren’t typically considered affordable, homeowners can still have these features in their affordable homes by replacing these expensive products with cheaper materials.

Are Affordable Home Plans Right For You?

If you want a smaller home with fewer finishes and potentially energy-efficient features that are also cost efficient in the long-run, then an affordable house plan might be right for you.

The good news is that these house plans come in all shapes and sizes, so the plans can be customized to fit any sized family without compromising major features. This means you can still have critical components that are found in bigger homes, like:

• Expansive outdoor space
• A master bathroom
• Formal living areas
• High-end living
• Three bedrooms (or more)

Affordable house plans are ideal for those who want to build a home or customize a floor plan and don’t want to break the bank.

Plus, being personally involved in the construction of your home means that you’ll be able to add efficient appliances, windows, and thicker insulation that can help keep your monthly costs low.

Find the Perfect Affordable House Plan Today

If you’re searching for a place to start, then Monster House Plans has the most expansive variety of affordable house plans to build that are designed to meet your needs without eliminating important features.

The best part is that you can customize the plans any way you like, either by working with our onboard architects or your own designer or construction manager.

Find the perfect affordable house plan for you and the whole family today.