Benchmark is the system of record for the residential architect who designs the home and sees it built. Price proposals from your firm's real costs, keep a record of every home from first proposal through completion, and turn finished homes into case studies that win the next client. Everything here stays private to your firm.
National figures: NAHB 2024 Construction Cost Survey (sample n=41 builders; avg total sales price $665,298; avg lot 20,907 sqft; avg finished area 2,647 sqft). Dataset figures: Mid-Atlantic (n=961 architecturally designed spec homes across 7 states).
What we're seeing in the data
Updated —
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Power Rankings02
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Market Structure03
Lot size defines the design canvas
Median lot ranges from 0.11 acres on coastal markets to 1.34 acres in Hunt Country — a 12× variance in outdoor design canvas. NAHB's national share for Final Steps (landscape, driveway, outdoor structures) is 6.5% — but in acreage-driven markets where the lot becomes the project, the practical share runs noticeably higher. Use the Market Explorer to find submarkets that match your typical acreage profile.
For Landscape Architects
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Your costs, benchmarked
Where your construction dollars go
Each phase's share of your construction spend, against the national average. Open a phase to see each home, the work inside it and who did it.
PhaseYour firm National (NAHB 2024)Sharevs nationalTypical
New project
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Project
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The home
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The shot that shows the key design idea: the ravine side, the courtyard, the view. It sits beside the cover in presentations.
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Costs
Construction · NAHB 8-phase
Aligned with the NAHB 2024 Construction Cost Survey framework. Enter a total per phase, or click Break down to add the lines this project used — NAHB lines like Landscaping or Roofing, or your own (a wine cellar, an elevator). Lines add up to the phase total. Click ✉ on an NAHB line to request a quote from a sub.
More detail: land, fees, reserves, insurance
Land
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Insurance, Bonds & General Conditions
If line-items sum to a value greater than 0, they override the Total field. Otherwise Total is used as-is.
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RFPs you've sent to subs via the directory. Enter the quote received to auto-fill the linked NAHB line item on this project.
Notes (optional)
Log your first custom home project
Every project you log unlocks your firm's portfolio benchmarks — $/FSF, cost mix, sub roster — and adds one more data point to the eventual peer-firm benchmark. Start with a project you finished recently; you can always edit later.
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Where the market pays the most per square foot
Mid-Atlantic submarkets ranked by mean $/FSF (price per finished square foot, above + below grade) for architecturally designed new construction. Submarkets with at least 5 closed home sales (n≥5) shown for benchmark-quality medians. Use as a calibration before pricing a project in an adjacent submarket.
01
Rehoboth Beach
DE · 8 sales
$1,122.66Avg $/SF
02
Long Beach Township
NJ · 20 sales
$1,110.35Avg $/SF
03
Surf City
NJ · 9 sales
$981.05Avg $/SF
04
Washington
DC · 22 sales
$594.90Avg $/SF
05
Princeton
NJ · 6 sales
$594.16Avg $/SF
06
Manahawkin
NJ · 15 sales
$560.71Avg $/SF
07
Chevy Chase
MD · 10 sales
$560.38Avg $/SF
08
Bethesda
MD · 72 sales
$494.65Avg $/SF
09
Wayne
PA · 10 sales
$489.20Avg $/SF
10
Arlington
VA · 74 sales
$471.64Avg $/SF
Every market in the dataset
Sort by any column. Each row is the median for that market across all transactions in the current selection. Narrow geography or period using the filters below — they scope this table, Land Economics, and Distributions together.
5 closed home transactions in Marmora, NJ · sorted by sale priceArchitecturally designed spec homes
Address
ZIP
Beds
Baths
Year
Total SQFT
Lot
$/SF
Sale
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4
3
2024
3,230 sq ft
0.93 ac
$260.68
$0.84M
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4
3
2025
3,230 sq ft
0.93 ac
$259.59
$0.84M
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4
3
2024
3,230 sq ft
1.24 ac
$252.32
$0.81M
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4
3
2025
2,628 sq ft
1.00 ac
$281.25
$0.74M
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4
3
2025
2,628 sq ft
1.00 ac
$262.61
$0.69M
Baths shown as full/half. Year is year built.
No land transactions recorded in Marmora in the current dataset. (Land cost in the calculator will fall back to county or state median.)
Subs your firm can trust.
Trade contractors that architects in the network have worked with. Find one by trade or town, keep your own list, and request quotes from your projects.
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Four tiers of architecturally designed new construction
The dataset splits cleanly into four price tiers. Use as benchmarks for sizing, lot, and price-per-square-foot expectations at each level of the market.
Tier · Top
Ultra-Luxury
$8.45M and above
Median Sale
$9.99M
5 sales · 99–100th pct · 1% of selection
Median $/SF$920.18
Median Size11,400 sq ft
Median Lot1.10 ac
Beds / Baths7 · 9/4
Tier · Upper
Luxury
$3.59M to <$8.45M
Median Sale
$4.09M
60 sales · 93–99th pct · 6% of selection
Median $/SF$648.46
Median Size7,127.0 sq ft
Median Lot0.35 ac
Beds / Baths6.0 · 6/1
Tier · Mid
Mid-Range
$2.20M to <$3.59M
Median Sale
$2.68M
304 sales · 62–93th pct · 32% of selection
Median $/SF$447.11
Median Size5,924.0 sq ft
Median Lot0.25 ac
Beds / Baths6.0 · 6/1
Tier · Entry
Value
Under $2.20M
Median Sale
$1.18M
592 sales · 0–62th pct · 62% of selection
Median $/SF$334.06
Median Size3,307.5 sq ft
Median Lot0.42 ac
Beds / Baths4.0 · 3/1
Tier boundaries derived from the full Mid-Atlantic dataset's price distribution at the 50th, 90th, and 99th percentiles. Medians, sample sizes, and percentile ranges recompute for the current filter. Bath counts shown as full/half.
Distributions
Where the market actually clusters
The averages are only half the story. The shapes below show how transactions are spread, and where premiums get paid.
Price per finished square foot ($/FSF)
Distribution of $/FSF (total finished sq ft, above + below grade) across the full sample. Median marked.
Price vs finished size
Each dot is one transaction, colored by market archetype.
Land Economics
Where the land sets the budget
From 996 closed land transactions across the Mid-Atlantic. The top chart shows raw land cost per acre by market; the bottom shows how much of a typical project's cost goes to the lot vs. the build in each market.
Median $/acre for closed land transactions, all markets with at least one observation shown. This is real dirt cost — not derived from finished home sales. Land coverage is intentionally broader than residential (n≥1) since premium markets with thin land-sale volume still inform the cascade.
Land vs. build cost share by market
For each market's typical project (its own median lot size × median home size), how much goes to land vs. construction. Markets where land dominates the budget appear at the top.
Cost Mix Drift
How the construction-cost mix has shifted, 2013 – 2024
Share of construction cost by major category, from successive NAHB Construction Cost Surveys. Major Systems Rough-ins climbing from 13.4% to 19.2% is the headline — HVAC, electrical, and plumbing costs have outpaced framing and exterior trades over the decade.
How the cost mix has shifted, 2013 – 2024
Share of construction cost by major category, NAHB Construction Cost Surveys. Note Major Systems Rough-ins climbing from 13.4% to 19.2% as HVAC, electrical, and plumbing costs have outpaced framing and exterior trades.
Methodology
How this data was built
Same boutique-quality methodology as the published 2025 State of New Construction report — extended to the full Mid-Atlantic dataset (961 architecturally designed spec homes, seven states).
Source
Sales data is drawn from closed transactions across a curated set of architecturally designed spec homes in the Mid-Atlantic, with national cost-share benchmarks from the NAHB 2024 Cost of Construction Survey.
Excludes homes in Home Owner Associations (production-builder skew)
Excludes homes not built within the last two years (filters out renovations and resales)
Excludes listings with zero above-grade finished square footage (no primary structure to measure)
Excludes listings with zero bedrooms or zero full bathrooms (catches accessory structures, sheds, and outbuildings mis-coded as detached single-family)
Excludes transactions below NAHB's national average $/FSF ($251/finished sq ft) — computed on total finished square footage (above-grade + below-grade finished). This is the architectural-quality axis: $/FSF self-normalizes for home size and discriminates premium-per-finished-foot from production-builder economics.
Excludes transactions below NAHB's national average sale price ($665,298). This is the project-scale axis: it aligns the dataset with the boutique custom market that design professionals and their clients operate in, and filters out smaller transactions that aren't representative of architecturally-designed new construction at the scale this dashboard is built to benchmark.
Geographic scope
Full Mid-Atlantic — seven states (Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia), 255 distinct submarkets in the dataset; benchmark-quality reporting requires at least 5 closed home sales (n≥5) per market. The 2025 published State of New Construction report used a 12-county sample; this interactive dashboard expands to the full universe at the same boutique-quality threshold.
Estimator math
Your estimate = land cost (regional observed median $/acre × your target lot) + construction cost (market median total finished $/sqft × your target sqft). Land cost uses a city → county → state cascade against 312 closed land transactions; falls back to NAHB national lot share if no regional data is available for the market. Construction cost expands via NAHB's 8-stage breakdown (I–VIII), each stage expanding to its sub-items (A–AJ). Soft costs (financing, overhead, builder profit, marketing, commission) and design fees are quoted separately by the design pro, builder, and lender — intentionally not in the headline total.
This dashboard is a benefit of Partner Network membership.
The Rappahannock River Company Partner Network is a curated community of Mid-Atlantic Residential Architects, Custom Home Builders, Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects. Members get full access to this market intelligence dashboard, the underlying spec-home dataset, monthly market briefings, and direct introductions to homeowners building in the region.
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