Compared to the overall average of 30 different major cities in the United States, building materials in San Francisco were more expensive than in Chicago. Opposed this is a city like Detroit, Michigian, where the price index of building materials was slightly below the average. What this overview tries to do, then, is compare the major cities against each other and whether one was relatively more expensive than the other when it comes to construction costs. This is especially visible for installation - such as HVAC. The city of New York reached an index of 174 in May 2021, meaning installation costs here were around 74 percent higher than the average cost for the 30 cities combined. Cities found in the state of Texas made up the other end of that spectrum: Installation costs in San Antonio, Houston and Dallas were between 30 to 40 percent lower than the overall average.

Lagos (Nigeria) was expected to be one of the cities in the world with the highest construction cost growth in 2025. Meanwhile, the construction cost in New York City (United States) was forecast to grow by *** percent that year. Paris and Zurich were the cities included in the list with the lowest forecast growth rate.

In the first quarter of 2025, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Honolulu were some of the U.S. cities with the highest housing construction costs. Meanwhile, Phoenix had one of the lowest construction costs for high-end multifamily homes at *** U.S. dollars per square foot and Las Vegas for single-family homes between *** and *** U.S. dollars per square foot. Construction cost disparities As seen here, the construction cost for a high-end multi-family home in San Francisco in the first quarter of 2024 was over ***** more expensive than in Phoenix. Meanwhile, there were also great differences in the cost of building a single-family house in New York and in Portland or Seattle. Some factors that may cause these disparities are the construction materials, installation, and composite costs, differing land values, wages, etc. For example, although the price of construction materials in the U.S. was rising at a slower level than in 2022 and 2023, several materials that are essential in most construction projects had growth rates of over **** percent in 2024. Growing industry revenue Despite the economic uncertainty and other challenges, the size of the private construction market in the U.S. rose during the past years. It is important to consider that supply and demand for housing influences the revenue of this segment of the construction market. On the supply side, single-family home construction fell in 2023, but it is expected to rise in 2024 and 2025. On the demand side, some of the U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest sale prices of single-family homes were located in California, with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara at the top of the ranking.

In early 2024, construction costs for elementary schools in Honolulu were on average over 697.5 U.S. dollars per square foot. From the 12 cities on display here, New York and Honolulu had some of the highest construction costs for educational buildings. The construction of one square foot of elementary school space was cheapest in Phoenix. University buildings were on average the most expensive type of educational building.

Ambulatory healthcare was the type of building with the highest construction costs in Ontario (Canada) in 2023. The cost of that type of building ranged from 7,110 to 8,750 Canadian dollars per square meter. Townhouses with mid-end specifications were, along with warehouses, among the cheapest buildings to construct, even though the townhouse sale price in Canada was much higher in 2023 than in a decade earlier. On the other side of the residential spectrum, the construction cost of high-rise buildings with mid-end specifications could reach up to 5,370 Canadian dollars per square meter. The housing sector in Ontario The fast population growth in Toronto, the main city in Ontario, has put pressure on its housing market. From 2001 to 2022, the number of people living in Canada’s largest city increased by over 37 percent. During the past years, house prices in Ontario rose at a similarly fast pace. Combined, these elements signal a strong demand for homes in Toronto and Ontario as a whole. The construction sector has responded to this trend: In 2022, most housing starts in Canada took place in the province of Ontario. That same year, EllisDon Corporation, with headquarters in Mississauga (Ontario), was the second-largest contractor in Canada. One of its largest residential/mixed-use projects under development is the 489-539 King St. West Development, in Toronto. Construction cost in North America Building construction costs in Quebec, the second most populous province in Canada after Ontario, had a similar cost range: Ambulatory healthcare buildings were the most expensive, and warehouses were the cheapest to build. However, enclosed malls and higher education buildings were significantly more expensive in Quebec than in Ontario. Across the border, the cities with the highest residential construction costs in the U.S. were San Francisco for multi-family housing, and New York City for single-family housing. Meanwhile, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York had the highest hotel construction costs in the U.S.