The actual cost of building a given house is determined largely by local conditions. The cost of labor, the cost of materials used, the distance of the new building from the base of supplies, and the amount of hauling involved, are items that vary with every enterprise. Thus no fixed price may be quoted as to the cost of a given building, the year round and in all localities. The reading public should, therefore, place no faith in the building figures quoted in popular magazines. They are misleading in the extreme; for they usually represent either a set of conditions which have not been fully told or which are so unusual that they may not be duplicated. In general it may safely be said that a modest house of usual construction may be built for considerably less money by rural than by city labor.

One way of estimating the probable cost of a new house is to compare it with another dwelling recently built in the locality. If the size and cost of the house already built are known, one may compute the average cost a cubic foot by dividing the total cost by the number of cubic feet that the house contains. If the house that is planned is to be of better grade than the one figured on, it will cost more a cubic foot; if it is simpler, it will cost less. A rough estimate may thus be reached before the work is undertaken or is figured out by the contractor.

With present standards of building it is likely that in no locality can a house with modern improvements be erected for less than sixteen cents a cubic foot, and that a modest house need not exceed twenty-four cents a cubic foot unless fireproof construction is used. An average cost of about eighteen cents a cubic foot is probably fair for most country districts.

Much has been said and written about the present high cost of building. It is true that a house of a given size to-day often costs twice as much as one of the same size would have cost twenty-five years ago; but this advance is due not alone to the increased cost of labor and material, but also to similar types of dwellings not being compared. A house equipped with heat, running water, hardwood floors, many closets, and frequently with electric light and built-in furniture is compared with a mere weather-proof structure built with single floors, no closets, and few or no modern improvements. Many more trades and much more equipment than formerly now go into the building of a comfortable house. It is the amount and the kind of equipment that increases the cost; a house 30 by 40 feet may be made to cost $3,000 or $10,000, according to the beauty and finish of interior woodwork, floors, and walls, the amount of plumbing, the number and kind of fixtures selected, or the kind of heating plant installed.