What it actually costs to build a cabin in Brian Head

Someone asks me what a cabin costs up here roughly once a week, and the honest answer starts with a question back: have you bought the lot yet?

That isn't a dodge. On Cedar Mountain the house is the predictable part. Our five plans run from $450,000 for The Pine to about $1.58 million for The Timber, and those numbers hold. What doesn't hold is everything underneath them.

The structure price is the quoted price

When a builder quotes you a cabin, they're quoting the structure — the thing that shows up in the renderings. For The Pine that's 1,100 square feet, three bedrooms, two baths, a gable-end window wall and about 1,100 square feet of covered deck wrapping three sides. Metal roof, lap siding, quartz counters, a gas fireplace. That's $450,000 to $525,000 depending on finish level.

What it does not include: the ground it sits on, getting power and water to it, the driveway you'll use to reach it, and the septic system if there's no sewer.

That's where the spread lives

Two lots a quarter mile apart can differ by six figures once you add site work.

A gently sloped parcel with power at the road and a short, flat approach is close to the best case. A steep lot that needs a long switchback driveway, a power run from the nearest pole, and a septic system engineered for the grade is a very different number — and from the listing photos the two can look nearly identical.

This is the single most expensive thing people get wrong up here. They fall for a view, close on the lot, and then find out what it costs to build on it.

Brian Head and Duck Creek are not the same math

Brian Head sits at 9,600 feet at the base. That means the strictest snow-load requirements on the mountain, a tighter construction season, and steeper lots on average. It also means the strongest nightly-rental demand, because people come for the ski resort.

Duck Creek Village is about 1,200 feet lower and a different build entirely — bigger parcels, more trees, longer season, gentler ground. Generally less expensive to build on, and the rental demand is four-season rather than winter-weighted.

Neither one is the right answer. They're different trades, and which one fits depends on whether you're buying for ski weekends, for summer, or for the revenue.

What we do about it

We walk the lot with the builder before you buy it. Not after.

Jacobs Construction has been building at elevation since 1976 — four generations of it — and Peter can stand on a parcel and tell you what the driveway and the foundation are going to cost before you've written an offer. That number, added to the plan price, is your actual budget. It's the one that stops moving.

If you're looking at a lot right now and want a read on it, that's a phone call, not a commitment.