The latest McMansion rising from the rubble of a 1950s vintage house a few blocks away is not only larger than average, but it has a brick exterior.  One doesn’t see too many new homes with all-brick exteriors going up here.  The main reason for this is that they are quite expensive compared to those built with vinyl or fiber-cement siding and brick or stone veneer trim.  The labor is more costly and so are the materials.

In addition to the higher cost of brick, there are other cost drivers.  For example, local building codes require steel I-beams to support the weight of all-brick houses.  The code allows most new houses with vinyl or fiber-cement siding to use less expensive I-beams made of wood products such as laminated veneer lumber.

The house is on a lot next to a another McMansion that was built earlier this year.  This house has fiber-cement siding, over 3700 square feet of living space and sold for about $1.2M.

As one can see in the pictures, “I’m Big, I”m Brick” is somewhat larger.  So I expect that the sell price will be substantially more than $1.2M.