Do national home builders offer the exact same house plan in every state or do they tailor their floor plan to fit the specific demographic of each location?
Particularly between states where the cost of living is extremely different. Are we paying more, less or the same for better, worse or the same quality?
Is a family in Oklahoma receiving the same quality of home as a family in California for a lot less money? Builders claim location variables and we never question their pricing model.
For this investigation I focused on the developer D.R.Horton because according to the National Association of Home Builders they are the leading home builder in America. Interestingly, that doesn’t mean they are the most trusted home builder in America, just the biggest.
Focusing on one developer enables me to compare as fairly as possible.
My original plan was to take D.R. Horton homes from the 3 states with the most and least expensive cost of living and analyse the differences. According to USA Today’s recently released list that would mean I’d be comparing Hawaii, California and Massachusetts to West Virginia, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Except no publication could agree on which was truly the most expensive place to buy a home and as I researched, I began to notice vast differences between the homes offered in the top states.
As all good scientists do, I pivoted, and will be doing a deep dive of D.R. Horton’s most expensive model homes available in 4 of the 5 most expensive states to buy a house in the US – California, Hawaii, Colorado and Washington.
You can find my overview table comparing the 4 at the end.
The Investigation:
As our first house, in the most expensive state to buy a home, I’m going to use this as the starting point to review all future plans against. Spoiler alert: the California home was significantly more basic than the others.
This was a nice house but everything about the home screamed average builder grade. It is a house I’ve seen 1000 times. Maybe Californians really like to customise their homes and D.R. Horton is just smartly catering to that.
It was a 2 storey, open concept that combined the kitchen, dining room and living area. One pro was the kitchen’s large pantry but was quickly followed by the con that is the very small island bench.
The next place to look for features is the bathroom. And in this home the primary bathroom had double vanities and a standard shower. The additional bathrooms had basic plastic tubs.
If I had to assign it an ice cream flavour it would be vanilla. Not only because the whole home was overwhelmingly white but because it’s not bad, it’s still enjoyable, there’s just nothing extra special about it.
[link to California house information]
Hawaii’s house plan surprised me. I’ve heard the horror stories of house prices on the islands so I had very low expectations for a home listed for $1 million.
This home has not only 30 square feet more than the California home BUT it’s also a 2 for 1!
The main house has an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) attached that is great for families or leasing separately. In the main house you’ll find 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths then the ADU has 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom.
I preferred the layout of the living area in the Hawaii home over the California plan even though it’s probably smaller in person.
You enter the front door into the living space with an L-shape kitchen breaking up the room so that the dining area is behind it. I like that it’s not completely closed off but does have specific sections.
The main part of the house also has vaulted ceilings that helps make the space feel bigger and brighter.
The primary bedroom was pretty comparable to California but it did have an added office niche.
The ADU also had an upgraded, sliding door shower.
I did notice the whole house had split system air conditioning. That might be a Hawaii thing? Just something different to the others.
The plan also noted that the laundry doubled as a safe room so I’m assuming it’s reinforced or meets some additional building codes that aren’t required for California.
[link to Hawaii house information]
Colorado was the only home that dropped below $1 million (a bargain, I know). It also had an additional 800 sq feet over California and Hawaii that’s been filled up with 5 bedrooms and an upstairs loft. I love that every single room had a walk-in closet. That might be a Colorado thing for all the winter clothes but storage is always a valuable feature.
The living area looks just like California with a standard rectangle of shared space.
I was admiring the upstairs bathroom for its double vanities until I realised that it is the only bathroom, shared between 3 bedrooms.
There was a lot of extra positives to the Colorado house compared to the California home.
The downstairs bathroom is a full bath with a shower and built in shelves where California had a half bath.
Colorado also looked like it had extra windows compared to California, allowing in more natural light. And the primary bedroom looked really spacious and didn’t have those useless wire shelves in the wardrobe.
It also had a sink in the island bench in the kitchen which a lot of people like and is considered an upgraded feature.
The one place it fell short was the pantry which was smaller than California. I can never understand when builders skimp on space here. The house is obviously designed for large families because it has 5 bedrooms but the kitchen storage looks like it was built for a retired couple who don’t eat.
[link to Colorado house information]
Up until now the homes were following the expected pattern – becoming cheaper and offering more. But Washington changed everything. Listed as the 5th most expensive state to buy a home (Massacheussetts was 4th but D.R. Horton doesn’t have any homes there currently) it has a model home starting at a staggering 4.5 million.
It goes without saying that this home completely blows all the others out of the water. But for the sake of science lets continue to compare it to our California home.
The Washington home is an amalgamation of the previous 3 homes best features plus more. It has 5 bedrooms, all ensuite, and bedroom 4, which is downstairs directly off the entry, is listed as a potential office that has nice double entry doors. There’s also an ADU with its own separate garage and entryway.
The garage situation and position of the house is a huge negative for me though. The front exterior is gorgeous but it’s below street level. You have climb down a bunch of steps and cross a small yard to reach the double front doors.
The garage, which is significantly uglier and less detailed than the entryway, is accessed from behind and connects to the main home by a covered patio and a singular glass door.
Unattached garages are a pet peeve of mine. They’re inconvenient and strange. The Washington layout is additionally unusual though because they’ve allowed for a single-entry door from the garage. But it’s placed next to a row of oversized glass windows. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a large sliding door? This would allow for easier access when bringing shopping in from the garage.
The rest of the house is gorgeous and filled with high end finishes; fireplaces, kitchen cabinets that reach the ceiling, a laundry sink, luxury storage systems, heated tiles and racks in the primary bathroom etc.
In fact the overall finish is so nice that I’d choose to live in the ADU over any of the previous 3 homes.
[link to Washington house information]
The Results:
It’s important to remember that model homes always have upgrades and do not represent the listed price. It can range from little things you’d never suspect, such as kitchen cupboard hardware, to additional bathroom sinks. What you see is NOT what you get. And in my experience the sales office guards the extras list like their life depends on it.
All my opinions are based on the pictured model homes, but the reality could be very different.
As suspected, California started off as the most expensive home and then the price slowly dropped as we continued down the list. Not including Washington which was in a league all of its own.
The quality of the finishes seemed to remain the same the top 3 states however you definitely got more bang for your buck in Hawaii and Colorado compared to California. They were bigger homes with more rooms and cost less.
I was expecting to see more of a variation in the kitchens and bathrooms, but it seems these are recycled across the country regardless of the homes price. It looks like you need to be in the 5 million dollar range now to get tiles in the shower instead of fiberglass.
My next question would be how these models compare to the cheapest home D.R. Horton offers in these same states. What is the minimum you can buy in the most expensive states in America? Let me know if you want a deep dive on that too.
Overview Table
| Price | Bed | Bath | Square Foot | |
| California | $1.39 million | 4 | 3 | 1,964 |
| Hawaii | $1 million | 4 | 3.5 | 1,996 |
| Colorado | $660,990 | 5 | 3 | 2,728 |
| Washington | $4.5 million | 5 | 5.5 | 4,208 |