2026 Home Project Cost by State: Where You Pay the Most (and Least)

Name: 2026 GetProjectCost Home Project Cost Index by State
Creator: GetProjectCost
Published: 2026-07-24
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Same deck, same fence, same bathroom remodel — the price swings by more than 2× depending on which state you live in. We built a 50-state Home Project Cost Index to show exactly how much more (or less) homeowners pay, and what it means for the projects on your list.

Published 2026-07-24 · Free to cite with a link to this page.

Key findings

Hawaii is the most expensive state for home projects — roughly 2× the national average (index 202), driven by shipped-in materials and island labor.
Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama are the cheapest (index 85) — homeowners there pay about 15% below the national average.
The coasts and Northeast — California, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut — cluster 30–50% above average.
The gap between the most and least expensive states is about 2.4×: a $14,000 deck in Oklahoma is roughly $28,000 in Hawaii.
Big-population states sit near the middle: Texas (97) and Florida (99) are both a hair below the national line.

What it costs in real projects

Applying each state's index to national-average project costs. These are planning ballparks — your exact number depends on materials, access, and your local market (use the ZIP-based calculators for that).

State	Index	Wood privacy fence150 ft	Composite deck200 sq ft	Bathroom remodelmid-scope	Kitchen remodelmidrange 10×10
National average	100	$4,000	$14,000	$12,000	$20,000
Hawaii	202	$8,100	$28,300	$24,200	$40,400
California	149	$6,000	$20,900	$17,900	$29,800
New York	141	$5,600	$19,700	$16,900	$28,200
Florida	99	$4,000	$13,900	$11,900	$19,800
Texas	97	$3,900	$13,600	$11,600	$19,400
Ohio	90	$3,600	$12,600	$10,800	$18,000
Alabama	85	$3,400	$11,900	$10,200	$17,000
Oklahoma	85	$3,400	$11,900	$10,200	$17,000

The full 50-state Home Project Cost Index

Ranked most to least expensive. Index 100 = the U.S. average; 120 means about 20% above average, 90 means about 10% below. The right column shows each state's reported new-home construction cost per square foot, the underlying signal behind the index.

#	State	Cost index (US = 100)	Build cost / sq ft
1	Hawaii HI	202	$300–$600
2	California CA	149	$200–$400
3	Massachusetts MA	141	$200–$350
4	New York NY	141	$200–$350
5	New Jersey NJ	129	$180–$300
6	Alaska AK	123	$150–$300
7	Connecticut CT	120	$180–$250
8	Rhode Island RI	120	$180–$250
9	Colorado CO	115	$150–$250
10	Maine ME	115	$150–$250
11	Minnesota MN	115	$150–$250
12	Montana MT	115	$150–$250
13	New Hampshire NH	115	$150–$250
14	Oregon OR	115	$150–$250
15	Vermont VT	115	$150–$250
16	Washington WA	115	$150–$250
17	Wyoming WY	115	$150–$250
18	Nevada NV	111	$130–$250
19	Illinois IL	101	$120–$200
20	Maryland MD	101	$120–$200
21	Pennsylvania PA	101	$120–$200
22	Virginia VA	101	$120–$200
23	Wisconsin WI	101	$120–$200
24	Arizona AZ	99	$110–$200
25	Florida FL	99	$110–$200
26	Tennessee TN	99	$110–$200
27	Utah UT	99	$110–$200
28	Idaho ID	97	$100–$200
29	Texas TX	97	$100–$200
30	Delaware DE	95	$120–$170
31	Georgia GA	94	$100–$180
32	Michigan MI	94	$100–$180
33	New Mexico NM	94	$100–$180
34	North Carolina NC	94	$100–$180
35	South Carolina SC	94	$100–$180
36	Indiana IN	90	$100–$160
37	Iowa IA	90	$100–$160
38	Kansas KS	90	$100–$160
39	Missouri MO	90	$100–$160
40	Nebraska NE	90	$100–$160
41	North Dakota ND	90	$100–$160
42	Ohio OH	90	$100–$160
43	South Dakota SD	90	$100–$160
44	Arkansas AR	87	$90–$150
45	Kentucky KY	87	$90–$150
46	Louisiana LA	87	$90–$150
47	West Virginia WV	87	$90–$150
48	Alabama AL	85	$90–$140
49	Mississippi MS	85	$90–$140
50	Oklahoma OK	85	$90–$140

Get your exact local number

This index is the statewide picture. For a real estimate tuned to your ZIP code, pick your project:

Fence → Deck → Concrete → Patio → Roofing → Painting → Tree Removal → Flooring → Kitchen Remodel → Bathroom Remodel →

Methodology

The GetProjectCost Home Project Cost Index expresses each state's typical home-project cost relative to the national average (set to 100). We start from reported new-home construction cost per square foot by state, take the midpoint of each state's range, and index it to the national average of about $158/sq ft. Because renovation and improvement projects — a fence, a deck, a bathroom — vary less across regions than luxury new-home construction (which is skewed by land and high-end finishes), we compress the raw spread toward the national mean, then cross-check the ranking against published state cost-of-living indices. The result lands in a realistic 0.85×–2.0× band that matches what contractors actually quote for these projects.

Worked-example dollar figures apply each state's index to national-average project costs produced by the GetProjectCost estimating engine. All figures are planning estimates, not quotes; local market conditions, material choices, and site access move real prices. Hawaii and Alaska carry the widest uncertainty because material shipping dominates their costs.

Sources

Home-Cost — U.S. home construction cost per square foot by state
Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) — state cost-of-living index (cross-check)
GetProjectCost estimating engine — national-average project costs and ZIP-based regional pricing

Reuse: this data is free to cite or republish with attribution and a link to this page (https://getprojectcost.com/home-project-cost-by-state/).