Prefab Price Index Q4 2026: Price per Square Foot by Type

If you are pricing a prefab home, the first thing to check is what the price covers. Across 162 published prices from 41 makers, the median kit costs $86 per square foot, the median finished unit before installation costs $308, and the median installed or turnkey unit costs $318. A shell sits between them at $149. Modular homes priced at the factory, before delivery and setting, have a median of $108, from 1 maker.

This is the first quarterly edition of the Host Camp Prefab Price Index: 134 models in 9 unit types. A model sold at more than 1 level appears once at each level, so there are more prices than models. No median mixes 2 price bases, because a kit and an installed unit are different products.

The Index by Price Basis

The table counts the 160 prices with a published floor area. 2 prices have none (the Backcountry Hut System 00 and the Tiny House Basics shell). They are in the data set and left out of every per-square-foot figure.

The Index by Type and Basis

A cell with fewer than 5 prices is a small sample. Its median can move a long way when 1 maker reprices, so read it as a range.

How the Index Is Built

• Makers’ own prices only. Every price comes from the maker’s own product, pricing, or price-list page. We do not use prices from retailers, dealers, magazines, or roundups.
• One row per model per price basis. Where 2 of our guides list the same model, it appears once. Where a model is sold as a kit, a shell, and a turnkey unit, each level is its own row.
• Price bases. A kit is materials the buyer or a contractor assembles. A shell is a structure the maker builds or erects with an unfinished interior. Unit only is a finished unit with delivery or installation left to the buyer. Home only at the factory is a finished modular home before delivery and setting. Installed or turnkey is a unit the maker sets on the buyer’s site.
• What is excluded. Prices the maker labels as estimates, such as Next Modular’s turn-key estimates. Prices published only in another currency. Makers that quote only on request, such as Zook Cabins. Sheds and pods with no bathroom or kitchen option. Prices whose basis the maker does not state.
• Sale prices. Where a sale price is the price a buyer pays at checkout, we use it. Deltec shows a time-limited promotion beside a “Total Shell Price”, and we use the total shell price.
• Floor area. We use the area the maker states. Where a maker gives only dimensions, we multiply them and leave lofts out.
• Medians. Every summary figure is a median, so 1 very expensive or very cheap model does not move it. Price per square foot is the published price divided by the published floor area.
• Next edition. The index is rebuilt each quarter on the same method.

The full data set, with the source page for every price, is available on request from Host Camp.

What the Numbers Show

The installed price is about 2.5 times the lower price for the same model. 13 models are published both as a kit or unit and as an installed unit by the same maker. The median installed price is 2.51 times the lower price, and the median difference is $192 per square foot. 9 of the 13 are Kanga Room Systems models, where the turnkey price is 2.15 to 3.65 times the shell kit. Abodu’s expected all-in price is 1.25 to 1.27 times its home price, because the home price already includes design, permits, and delivery.

Units under 400 square feet cost the most per square foot at the 3 main price bases. Kits under 400 square feet have a median of $125 per square foot, against $88 from 400 to 800 square feet and $73 above 800. Finished units before installation run $344 under 400 square feet, $284 from 400 to 800, and $301 above 800. Installed units run $370 under 400 square feet, $294 from 400 to 800, and $302 above 800. A 200-square-foot unit still needs a kitchen, a bathroom, and a delivery, so those costs are spread over fewer square feet.

Tiny homes have the highest finished median of any type. A finished tiny home before installation has a median of $412 per square foot, against $266 for a finished container home and $315 for a finished modular home from Dvele, Honomobo, or Amish Built Cabins. 12 of the 20 finished tiny homes are built on wheels or as park models, and all 20 are under 400 square feet.

Barndominium kits have the lowest price per square foot in the index, and they include the least. The median barndominium kit is $40 per square foot, because most of those kits are the frame and the exterior, with insulation, interior walls, and labor left out. Summertown Metals publishes both levels for its Brookside: $58 per square foot for the exterior shell and $150 for turnkey.

The installed median depends heavily on 1 maker. Kanga Room Systems supplies 10 of the 20 installed prices, and without Kanga the installed median is $364 per square foot. Ask a maker for its installed price in writing before you compare it with this index.

The Guides Behind the Data

Every row comes from 1 of our guides, where each price is linked to the maker’s page: prefab cabin kits, prefab guest houses, the cost of prefab homes, prefab tiny homes, prefab ADUs, cheap prefab homes, small prefab homes, 2-story prefab homes, A-frame kits, prefab home kits, turnkey prefab vs kit, prefab container homes, prefab log cabins, prefab cottages, prefab barndominiums, and prefab tiny home kits.

To price the ground under any of these units, use the site-prep cost estimator. To finance one, start with the lender locator. For finished units rated for a rental business, see the 8 best prefab cabins, rated, and for one host’s build, read the Campfire Lodges playbook.

For related comparisons, see prefab home manufacturers in the USA and luxury prefab homes.

Host Camp is not a licensed tax, legal, or financial adviser. Confirm figures for your situation with a professional.

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