A House Made of Money – Literally
Anyone who has struggled to save for a down payment knows that homes are expensive. This idea got a scientist at Redfin thinking … how expensive would it be to actually build a house out of money?
The idea was to determine what it would cost to construct a home from dollar bills. Based on county public records, an average American home is approximately 1,811 square feet, and although there are different floor plans and layouts, this was determined to be the best home design for the calculation:
- 2 stories, each 10 feet tall
- Exterior walls are 8 inches thick
- Interior walls are 5 inches thick
- Roof is 3 inches thick
- Floor is 2 inches thick
- Twice as long as it is wide.
Using the dimensions of a dollar bill (6.14” × 2.61” × 0.0043”), Redfin calculated how many dollars it would take to construct a house if the bills were stacked on top of each other.
The total? 441,435,440 dollar bills.
Other than maybe a few billionaires, the rest of us are probably better off using our dollars to buy a home instead of building one.
Hampton Roads Real-e-statement is written by Alyssa Godwin, a Realtor with Liz Moore and Associates. For questions regarding buying or selling contact Alyssa at 757-329-6161 or alyssagodwin@lizmoore.com. You can also find Alyssa on Facebook or on the web at www.lizmoore.com/alyssagodwin.