Remodel vs rebuild: what remodel, demolition and new-home permits cost in 10 cities

Remodel, addition or rebuild: the filed costs

The usual filed value of each permit type, from each city's own file. A rebuild is roughly the demolition plus the new home.

City cost pages: Minneapolis new homes, Columbus remodels, Cary new homes, Cape Coral new homes, Miami remodels.

Reading the table

The gap is large everywhere. In Columbus a new house ($350,000) is filed at about 16 times the usual remodel ($22,000); in Cape Coral ($416,297 against $34,733) about 12 times. Even an addition, the biggest common remodel, is a fraction of a new house: $125,000 against $359,500 in Cary.

But the usual remodel is a small job. The remodel column mixes bathrooms with gut renovations, so it understates what a whole-house remodel costs. For a whole-house job, the top of each city's band of remodel firms is a better comparison: in Minneapolis the middle half of remodel firms usually file $11,400 to $50,000, and in Columbus $17,000 to $65,000. When your remodel quote approaches half of the city's usual new home, it is worth pricing a rebuild.

A rebuild takes far longer. The usual new home took 176 days from permit to final in Cary, against 84 for a remodel; in Miami 648 against 182. That is after demolition, which has its own permit and clock (133 days to final in Miami), and after plan review. You will usually be living elsewhere for all of it.

When rebuilding is the answer

• The flood-zone 50% rule. In a flood zone, if the cost of "reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement" to a building "equals or exceeds 50 percent of the building's market value", the building "must meet current flood zone construction requirements"; substantially damaged buildings must be brought up to the same standards (City of Cape Coral, read 21 October 2026). Once a remodel crosses that line, much of the cost of a new house arrives anyway. Ask your building department how it sets market value and whether it adds up improvements over several years before you design the remodel.
• Structure. If the foundation or framing is failing, the remodel becomes a rebuild in stages.
• Most walls move. A layout change that moves most walls and every pipe is priced like new construction. Arlington County, for example, treats moved pipes or drywall as permitted work even in a kitchen (Arlington County).

When remodelling is the answer

When the structure is sound and you want more room or new rooms, not a different house. An addition gives you square footage at a fraction of a new home's filed value, and the house stays lived-in for part of the work. It also keeps you clear of rules that apply to new construction, such as current setbacks and, on some lots, the 50% rule above.

Who builds which

Different firms do each. Remodels are spread across many small firms: 49.4% of Minneapolis remodel firms filed exactly one remodel permit. New homes are concentrated: in Cape Coral, 362 firms filed 3,254 new-home permits, and 92.1% of those a year or more old reached a final. For a rebuild, you are choosing a home builder: see how to choose a home builder. For a remodel, see hiring a remodeling contractor, and for adding space, ADU vs addition.

See Minneapolis remodelers and their finished share →

What this does not tell you

Filed values are the contractors' figures for the permitted work, not your total cost: land, design, temporary housing and finishes are often outside them, and a new-home filing may cover the shell only. The new-home column covers houses of every size on every kind of lot. The remodel column mixes job sizes. Demolition permits include garages and outbuildings as well as houses. Compare your own quotes with these ranges; do not price a project from them.