I talked to a builder down in South Walton last week and he said that was going rate for a house down there. Lot location could make it more. I’m guessing that this one is one of those.

I would have guessed more than that.

I would bet there are a lot of them higher than that.

Some folks have more money than sense, or maybe than they know what to do with.

Me too. But based on homes in East Montgomery county like The Waters that’s crazy.

I got 100 linear ft of beachfront sand at orange beach I’d sell for $40k a foot. Sounds high but that’s a deal in the market today for highly developable beach front property

That one didn’t waste much $/sf on architecture

60 years ago squarely middle class folks could afford a modest beachfront place in Alabama. Sad at what it’s become.

On lake martin at the ridge there $385sf to $420

I know of someone that bought a $2.3 million house on a lot, probably not much over 1/10th acre, they tore the house down and are building another one that is close to $4.5 million in south Walton County. Not on the Gulf, but close.

Yep. Looks like a office building with that parapet flat roof.

$400 per ad sounds like a deal for gulf front housing.

Back before the storm when we were shopping for a builder for our lot in Mexico Beach 3 blocks off the beach, we talked to a lot of builders. There were a lot of houses being built at that time. We got quotes for about $120 a s.f. That was a turn key house with landscaping, driveway, sewer, water and gas hook up, metal roof, tile floors, granite counter tops, brick/stone on the front and vinyl siding on the back 3 sides.

Since then we've talked to some friends who have property down there near ours, who also happen to be our next door neighbors at the cabin, and they told us that builders won't even talk to you any more. They are older than we are by a few years and they don't have the time to wait to build a beach house, so they are thinking about selling their lots and forgetting about it.

For one of those custom build multi-story vacation homes right on the beach, $400 per s.f. doesn't sound surprising to me.

All that said, now that I have the mountain house, I would 10 times rather be at my cabin than any beach house we could build. Even one right on the beach. As it is right now, we only go to the beach because Mrs. Irish wants to go.

building codes are much different due to hurricanes, for basics.

I wouldn't pay $1 a foot for anything down there.

I feel the same way

Got a builder buddy right now that is working on roughly a 4.5 million dollar build (vertical construction only) on the beach. He's not fully sure of the total cost because he's buildign it "cost plus" for the owners. Just the "tile" budget for that house is $340,000, tile material only. Let me state that again, just tile material. Does not include any installation or the flooring going in other areas of the house. When the tile budget for material only is $48/ft by intself, yeah, you can get well over $400/ft real quick. When people have the money to afford to buy that beachfront property, the level of finishes that they put in those houses is unreal. Sub-contractor prices double when you cross over south of HWY 98. Building and county codes on the beach are also a cost multiplier. In Walton County, you cannot bring std import fill onto the beach. You have to use a certified color match "white" fill that matches the color of the local beach sand and luckily it is only 10X more expensive than regular clean white colored sand fill that does not meet the spec. $600-$700/ft build cost happens all the time.

There are plenty of $200/ft houses in small towns in Alabama/Mississippi. I know it's not the norm, but it's hardly a stretch. You're lucky to build a nice house in a nice hood for less than $150/ft anywhere.

With that kind of cost on tile material alone I can only imagine the detail work involved. I’m guessing that it includes mostly stone not porcelain tile. But If I were a tile contractor the only way I would do that job is cost plus. There’s only a handful of tile contractors within three hours of Walton county if that’s were his job is that can handle a tile and stone job with that scope of work involved. One is in Mobile and the other is in Montgomery.

Sounds like I need to go lootin' for building materials after the next hurricane.