Index methodology

The per-square-foot figures are quoting rates for a finished module leaving the fabrication facility, at three defined finish tiers. They cover the shell, the envelope, the interior finishes appropriate to the tier, mechanical and electrical rough-in and termination, and factory quality control. They do not cover foundation, freight, permitting, survey, site preparation, utility trenching, crane set or utility connection. Every one of those is itemized separately on the site costs page.

State-level variation in the structure rate reflects code-driven cost: wind zone, seismic category and energy code. It does not reflect regional margin.

Where we cite a competitor's pricing, the figure is taken from that company's own published pages, verified in July 2026, and stated as they state it — all-in where they publish all-in, structure-only where they publish structure-only. We do not adjust a competitor's number to make a comparison look better, and where a builder's scope differs from ours we say so rather than normalising it silently.

Builders are identified by category rather than name. The figures are real and verifiable from public sources; the naming convention is a courtesy, not an obfuscation.

Shell prices are for containers in the condition stated — one-trip or wind and water tight — at depot, before modification. These are the most volatile numbers on the index, because a shipping container is a commodity whose price moves with steel and with the shipping cycle. Treat them as a snapshot with a shorter shelf life than the structure rates.

Conversion package prices are labour and materials for the scope listed, applied to a shell you have already bought. They are additive to the shell price, and the combined totals table shows both together so there is no ambiguity.

Freight is calculated at $6.80 per loaded mile, one way, from the Miami fabrication facility to the destination state, assuming a single module on a standard trailer with no permit escort required. Multi-module buildings ship on multiple trucks and the figure multiplies accordingly. Oversize loads requiring escort or route survey carry additional cost not reflected in the table.

It does not price your specific project. A real quote requires the parcel, the soil, the flood zone, the utility locations, the jurisdiction and the actual configuration. Anyone who gives you a firm number without those is guessing.

It does not forecast. These are current figures, not projections, and material costs in this category have moved sharply in both directions over the past several years.

It does not cover every building type. The types listed are the ones we build and quote regularly. Absence from the table means we do not have a defensible number, not that the category does not exist.

This revision is dated August 2026. When a figure changes materially we update the page and move the date rather than silently editing, so a citation with a date remains checkable.

If you are citing this index, link to the specific page whose number you used and include the revision date. If you believe a figure is wrong, we would genuinely rather hear it than not — the phone number is (954) 488-0700 and every page on this site has a form.

Any index worth citing should state where it is weakest, so here are the four places we would push back on our own numbers.

Container shell prices have the shortest shelf life on this index. A shipping container is a commodity and its price responds to steel, to freight rates and to the global shipping cycle. A figure that was accurate at publication can be off by twenty percent within a year in either direction. Treat these as indicative and confirm current.

Permitting figures are averages across enormously variable jurisdictions. Plan check and fees in a large coastal city bear little relationship to a rural county. The number we publish is a working average and should be treated as a placeholder until you have called your own building department.

Freight assumes a straightforward haul. The per-mile rate covers a standard trailer on ordinary routes. Oversize permits, escort requirements, route surveys, ferry crossings and mountain routing all add cost that the linear formula does not capture.

Site costs assume competent local trades are available at market rates. In genuinely remote areas, or in markets experiencing a construction labour shortage, earthwork and foundation pricing can exceed these figures substantially, and mobilisation charges appear that simply do not exist near a metro.

There is a reasonable question behind any seller-published price index: what is the angle? The answer is straightforward and worth stating.

A buyer who arrives with an accurate budget is a better buyer. They have already self-qualified, they are not shocked by the site costs, and the conversation starts at configuration rather than at whether the project is feasible at all. The sales cost of an informed buyer is a fraction of the sales cost of an uninformed one, and the cancellation rate is lower. Publishing the numbers is not altruism; it is a better funnel.

The secondary reason is that this content earns links, and links are how a website competes. An industry that publishes nothing leaves a gap, and the party that fills the gap becomes the reference that journalists, forums and comparison articles cite. That is a durable advantage that no amount of advertising buys.

Both of those motives are commercial. Neither of them is served by publishing numbers that turn out to be wrong, which is the actual reason to trust them.

The most useful thing about a published index is that it is falsifiable. Here is how to test it.

Competitor figures: open their pricing pages directly. Every all-in number we cite appears on a public page belonging to the builder in question, stated in their own terms. If a figure has moved since our revision date, ours is stale and theirs is correct.

Container shells: call two depots in your area and ask for a one-trip 20 foot and a 40 foot high cube, delivered. You will get a real number in five minutes, and it is the fastest way to check whether our shell figures are current.

Permitting: call your building department and ask what plan check and permit fees run for an accessory dwelling or a commercial modular placement. They will tell you. This is the figure most likely to differ substantially from our average.

Foundation: ask a local concrete contractor for a per-square-foot rate on a slab or pier system for a module set. Regional labour rates vary more than material does, and this is where a genuinely remote site will exceed our figures.

If any of these checks produce a number materially different from ours, we would rather hear about it than have the index quietly drift out of date. Every page carries a form.