Ogden · build cost
What it costs to build a house in Ogden, NY
A standard-finish house in Ogden runs about $204–268/sq ft all in, which on a 1,800 sq ft build works out to roughly $370k–480k with general-contractor margin already in it. The part people leave out is what you pay before that, because the smallest conforming residential lot in the Town of Ogden is 0.6887 acres and vacant land here carries a median assessed value of $3,333 an acre, so the dirt alone is around $2,295 and the whole thing lands near $370k–485k. What the code will let you put on that lot is rarely the binding constraint, since even Single-Family Residential (R-1) — 30,000 sf, or 40,000 sf WITHOUT public water and sewer; 150 ft of lot width, or 200 ft without those services; 200 ft of lot depth; front 60 ft; side 15 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; rear 30 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory structures 24 ft, sheds 15 ft. The recorded figures are the serviced case. MAXIMUM COVERAGE IS 20% BY ALL BUILDINGS, WITH A SEPARATE AND MUCH TIGHTER ACCESSORY CAP: accessory structures may cover no more than 1% of the lot AND may not exceed 5,000 sf of total floor area per parcel REGARDLESS OF LOT SIZE. On the 30,000 sf minimum lot that 1% is just 300 sf, so a detached garage or barn is constrained by the accessory percentage long before the 20% overall figure binds — this is the constraint to quote on any R-1 outbuilding question. NON-RESIDENTIAL USES IN R-1 TAKE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AND MUCH LARGER ENVELOPE, which is easy to misread as the residential one: 400 ft of lot depth, 250 ft of lot width, 125 ft front setback and 50 ft side and rear setbacks. R-1 IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN OGDEN WITH AN IN-LAW APARTMENT, available as a conditional use from the Zoning Board of Appeals and restricted to the owners of record and their blood relatives — see `aduNotes`, because that occupancy restriction means it produces no market rent. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,500 sf for a one-storey dwelling., the tightest residential district here, allows a building footprint of roughly 6,000 sq ft on a conforming lot, which is more house than the budget above actually buys. The figures below come out of the same cost engine Aldo uses to price a real parcel, broken out by system and by what a harder site adds, so you can see where the money actually goes.
Land plus build: the real number in Ogden
Build cost is the half everyone quotes. The other half is the lot, and in the Town of Ogden the code will not let you build on less than 0.6887 acres in its most permissive residential district, so that is the smallest ticket into the town.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Minimum conforming residential lot (0.6887 ac at $3,333/ac) | $2,295 |
| House, 1,800 sq ft, standard finish, slab on a flat lot | $370k–480k |
| Land and build together | $370k–485k |
Land is roughly 1% of that total in Ogden. The per-acre figure is the median assessed full market value of vacant residential land across 434 priced parcels here, which is a proxy for what dirt is worth and not an asking price - road-frontage lots that are ready to build on trade above it, and back land without access trades below.
Cost per square foot by finish level
All in, general-contractor margin included, for a slab-on-grade build on a flat and clear lot. The rate holds steady whether you build 1,200 or 2,500 sq ft, which is why the finish level moves a budget more than the size does.
| Finish level | $ / sq ft | 1,800 sq ft total |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $204–$268 | $370k–480k |
| Custom | $272–$405 | $490k–730k |
| Luxury | $415–$717 | $745k–1.29M |
Standard — Builder-grade but solid - stock cabinetry, mid-range windows, standard fixtures. What most spec cabins and rental builds run.
Custom — Better envelope, upgraded windows and doors, semi-custom millwork and fixtures. The typical Hudson Valley owner-build.
Luxury — High-performance envelope, custom cabinetry, designer fixtures and specialty finishes. Architect-driven, no stock parts.
Where the money goes
A standard-finish build at Monroe County pricing, broken out by trade as dollars per square foot. Foundation and site work here are the slab and flat-lot baseline, so a harder site stacks on top of them.
| System | $ / sq ft |
|---|---|
| Site work | $7–$11 |
| Foundation | $16–$23 |
| Framing | $25–$32 |
| Envelope - roof, siding, windows | $32–$41 |
| Plumbing | $16–$20 |
| Electrical | $13–$16 |
| HVAC | $15–$18 |
| Insulation | $7–$9 |
| Interior finishes | $27–$36 |
| Millwork & cabinetry | $11–$16 |
What moves the number
The baseline assumes the easy case. Each of these stacks on top, per square foot, at Monroe County pricing:
- Crawlspace instead of slab+$13–20/sq ft
- Full basement instead of slab+$31–49/sq ft
- Moderately sloped or wooded lot+$8.7–16/sq ft
- Steep or ledge-rock site+$22–44/sq ft
- Winter foundation & site work+$2.8–4/sq ft
Whole-project totals
Standard finish, slab on a flat lot, all in and before land. A harder site or a higher finish moves these up.
| Home size | Estimated build cost | With a conforming lot |
|---|---|---|
| 1,200 sq ft | $245k–320k | $245k–325k |
| 1,800 sq ft | $370k–480k | $370k–485k |
| 2,500 sq ft | $510k–670k | $515k–670k |
How much house Ogden actually lets you build
Every residential district caps how much of the lot the building can cover. Multiply that cap by the district's minimum lot size and you get the largest footprint the code permits on a conforming lot in the Town of Ogden, which runs from about 6,000 sq ft in Single-Family Residential (R-1) — 30,000 sf, or 40,000 sf WITHOUT public water and sewer; 150 ft of lot width, or 200 ft without those services; 200 ft of lot depth; front 60 ft; side 15 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; rear 30 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory structures 24 ft, sheds 15 ft. The recorded figures are the serviced case. MAXIMUM COVERAGE IS 20% BY ALL BUILDINGS, WITH A SEPARATE AND MUCH TIGHTER ACCESSORY CAP: accessory structures may cover no more than 1% of the lot AND may not exceed 5,000 sf of total floor area per parcel REGARDLESS OF LOT SIZE. On the 30,000 sf minimum lot that 1% is just 300 sf, so a detached garage or barn is constrained by the accessory percentage long before the 20% overall figure binds — this is the constraint to quote on any R-1 outbuilding question. NON-RESIDENTIAL USES IN R-1 TAKE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AND MUCH LARGER ENVELOPE, which is easy to misread as the residential one: 400 ft of lot depth, 250 ft of lot width, 125 ft front setback and 50 ft side and rear setbacks. R-1 IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN OGDEN WITH AN IN-LAW APARTMENT, available as a conditional use from the Zoning Board of Appeals and restricted to the owners of record and their blood relatives — see `aduNotes`, because that occupancy restriction means it produces no market rent. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,500 sf for a one-storey dwelling. to 12,000 sq ft in Two-Family Residential (R-2) — 40,000 sf, or 62,500 sf WITHOUT public water and sewer; 200 ft of lot width, or 250 ft without; 200 ft of lot depth, or 250 ft without; front 60 ft; side and rear 30 ft for principal buildings and 5 ft for accessory structures; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory 15 ft (one storey). Recorded figures are the serviced case, and note the unserviced penalty here is the steepest in the town at 56% more land. Maximum building coverage is 30%, ten points more than R-1, with accessory structures capped at 1% PER LIVING UNIT and no accessory structure exceeding 400 sf of floor area except on farms — a much tighter accessory cap than R-1's 5,000 sf. R-2 IS THE REAL ROUTE TO A SECOND INCOME UNIT IN OGDEN: it permits a genuine two-family dwelling as a PRINCIPAL use, whereas the only accessory unit in the town is R-1's in-law apartment, whose occupancy is restricted to blood relatives and which therefore cannot be rented. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,000 sf PER LIVING UNIT for a one-storey dwelling, so a two-family on the district minimum must deliver 2,000 sf of habitable area.. Worth checking before you assume zoning is what is limiting the house, because in most districts it is the budget that runs out first.
| District | Min lot | Lot coverage | Max footprint | Max height |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-Family Residential (R-1) — 30,000 sf, or 40,000 sf WITHOUT public water and sewer; 150 ft of lot width, or 200 ft without those services; 200 ft of lot depth; front 60 ft; side 15 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; rear 30 ft for principal buildings, 15 ft for accessory structures and 5 ft for sheds; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory structures 24 ft, sheds 15 ft. The recorded figures are the serviced case. MAXIMUM COVERAGE IS 20% BY ALL BUILDINGS, WITH A SEPARATE AND MUCH TIGHTER ACCESSORY CAP: accessory structures may cover no more than 1% of the lot AND may not exceed 5,000 sf of total floor area per parcel REGARDLESS OF LOT SIZE. On the 30,000 sf minimum lot that 1% is just 300 sf, so a detached garage or barn is constrained by the accessory percentage long before the 20% overall figure binds — this is the constraint to quote on any R-1 outbuilding question. NON-RESIDENTIAL USES IN R-1 TAKE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AND MUCH LARGER ENVELOPE, which is easy to misread as the residential one: 400 ft of lot depth, 250 ft of lot width, 125 ft front setback and 50 ft side and rear setbacks. R-1 IS THE ONLY DISTRICT IN OGDEN WITH AN IN-LAW APARTMENT, available as a conditional use from the Zoning Board of Appeals and restricted to the owners of record and their blood relatives — see `aduNotes`, because that occupancy restriction means it produces no market rent. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,500 sf for a one-storey dwelling. | 0.6887 ac | 20% | 6,000 sq ft | 35 ft |
| Two-Family Residential (R-2) — 40,000 sf, or 62,500 sf WITHOUT public water and sewer; 200 ft of lot width, or 250 ft without; 200 ft of lot depth, or 250 ft without; front 60 ft; side and rear 30 ft for principal buildings and 5 ft for accessory structures; principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory 15 ft (one storey). Recorded figures are the serviced case, and note the unserviced penalty here is the steepest in the town at 56% more land. Maximum building coverage is 30%, ten points more than R-1, with accessory structures capped at 1% PER LIVING UNIT and no accessory structure exceeding 400 sf of floor area except on farms — a much tighter accessory cap than R-1's 5,000 sf. R-2 IS THE REAL ROUTE TO A SECOND INCOME UNIT IN OGDEN: it permits a genuine two-family dwelling as a PRINCIPAL use, whereas the only accessory unit in the town is R-1's in-law apartment, whose occupancy is restricted to blood relatives and which therefore cannot be rented. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,000 sf PER LIVING UNIT for a one-storey dwelling, so a two-family on the district minimum must deliver 2,000 sf of habitable area. | 0.9183 ac | 30% | 12,000 sq ft | 35 ft |
| Rural Agricultural (RA) — 1 ACRE MINIMUM AND, UNUSUALLY, A 3 ACRE MAXIMUM: the code caps lot size as well as setting a floor, expressly to stop farmland being consumed by large residential lots, and the maximum may rise above three acres only where the Monroe County Health Department requires more room for an on-lot sewage system, in quarter-acre increments. 150 ft of lot width, 250 ft of lot depth, 20% maximum building coverage, front 60 ft, side 25 ft for all buildings, rear 50 ft for residential and 30 ft for agricultural, principal height 35 ft (2 1/2 storeys), accessory 15 ft (one storey). THE BINDING CONSTRAINT IS NOT THE LOT MINIMUM — IT IS A SLIDING-SCALE SUBDIVISION CAP KEYED TO THE PARENT TRACT. § 300-25 limits the maximum number of lots that may be created from a parcel by the acres of contiguous land held in single and separate ownership (the 'parent tract') AS IT STOOD ON 16 MARCH 1981, or the date the land was first zoned RA if later: at least 2 but under 6 acres yields 1 lot, 6 to 30 yields 2, 30 to 80 yields 3, 80 to 130 yields 4, 130 to 180 yields 5, 180 to 230 yields 6, and 230 to 280 yields 7. A 200-acre RA farm therefore yields SIX lots, not the roughly 200 that dividing by the one-acre minimum would suggest — an error of more than 30x. The scale attaches to the 1981 parent tract, so lots already split off since then count against the allowance and the current deed acreage is NOT the input; establishing the 1981 configuration is the first step in underwriting any RA parcel. Minimum habitable floor area is 1,200 sf for a one-storey dwelling (§ 300-58). Farm buildings have no minimum interior distance requirement. No in-law apartment is available in RA. | 1 ac | 20% | 8,712 sq ft | 35 ft |
Footprint is the ground-floor building area, so a second storey buys floor area this number does not constrain, subject to the height limit. Some municipalities write their coverage cap as impervious surface rather than building coverage, which counts the driveway, walks and patio against the same budget and leaves less of it for the house - check which one your district uses before you design to it.
Local rules that move a build budget in Ogden
- UtilityRG&E territory. Service run and connection cost depends on distance to the line, which on a rural parcel can be the single largest site expense.
- Short-term rentalsNo local short-term-rental law on record - which is not the same as permission. No short-term rental provision exists anywhere in Ogden's Ch. 300 Zoning, and no separate rental-licensing chapter was found in the Town Code — the only 'transient' hit in the whole 150,942-character zoning chapter is in the noise regulations, exempting transient noise from moving sources such as automobiles, trucks and railroads. Ogden regulates lodging only through the conventional use list; there is no tourist home, no bed-and-breakfast standard and no STR permit. ABSENCE IS NOT PERMISSION: Ch. 300 defines permitted uses as a closed list per district, so a short-term rental in an Ogden house may be unpermitted as an unlisted use even though no section names it. Note the contrast with the Town of Gates in the same county, which regulates STRs through a separate Ch. 148 Rental Properties law with a permit and a three-month threshold — a search of a Monroe town's ZONING chapter alone is not sufficient to conclude there is no STR regime, and the Ogden Town Code's other chapters should be swept once more before this is treated as settled. New York State's 2025 statewide short-term rental registry (Ch. 99 of the Laws of 2025) obliges every host to register regardless of local law. Confirm with the Building Department at (585) 617-6195.
- Districts mapped10 zoning districts in the Town of Ogden.
- Building dept(585) 617-6195
- Zoning last reviewed2026-08-12
Sizing up a specific parcel in Ogden?
Aldo pulls the exact zoning district, setbacks, and build feasibility for any parcel — before you buy. Enter your email to open Aldo and run your free report.
Building an accessory unit instead?
An 800 sq ft ADU in Ogden runs about $200k–260k, and the per-square-foot rate is higher than a full house because the kitchen, bath, panel and heating plant cost the same either way. See what it costs to build an ADU in Ogden, priced by size.
Cost to build in nearby towns
All Monroe County towns: Rochester (City) · Brighton · Chili · Clarkson · Gates · Greece · Hamlin · Henrietta · Irondequoit · Mendon · Parma · Penfield · Perinton · Pittsford · Riga · Rush · Sweden · Webster · Wheatland · Town/Village of East Rochester (Village) · Brockport (Village) · Churchville (Village) · Fairport (Village) · Hilton (Village) · Honeoye Falls (Village) · Pittsford (Village) · Scottsville (Village) · Spencerport (Village) · Webster (Village)
More on Ogden: Zoning for new construction · ADU rules · Monroe County build cost
Cost to build in Ogden: common questions
How much does it cost to build a house in Ogden, NY?
A standard-finish new build in Town of Ogden runs about $204–268/sq ft all in, general-contractor margin included, which puts a 1,800 sq ft house at roughly $370k–480k. A full basement, a sloped or wooded site, or a winter foundation pour each add to that, and a custom or luxury finish level moves it up again. Land is on top: a minimum conforming lot of 0.6887 acres runs about $2,295 here, for a combined $370k–485k.
What is the cheapest way to build in Ogden?
The three levers that move a budget most here are finish level, foundation and site. Standard finish on a slab, on a flat and already-cleared lot, in the warm season, is the floor - every step away from that combination is priced in the tables above. Square footage matters less than people expect, because the per-square-foot rate barely moves between a 1,200 and a 2,500 sq ft house; what changes is the total.
Do I need a bigger lot to build in Ogden?
The smallest residential minimum lot size in Town of Ogden is 0.6887 acres, and the more rural districts go up to 2 acres. Which minimum applies depends on the district your parcel sits in, so confirm the district before you assume a lot is buildable.
Does it cost more to build in winter in Ogden?
Yes. Foundation and site work carry a winter premium because of frost protection, heating and ground conditions, and at Monroe County pricing that works out to about +$2.8–4/sq ft across the whole build. It is usually cheaper to wait for spring than to pay it, unless the schedule is already costing you more somewhere else.
Construction figures are modeled estimates from Offsite's cost engine in current 2026 dollars, general-contractor margin included, using the Monroe County regional index. They are planning numbers for decision-support only - not a bid, quote, or guarantee, and not architectural or engineering advice. Zoning figures for the Town of Ogden come from the municipal code (last reviewed 2026-08-12) and can carry district exceptions and overlays this page does not show. Actual cost depends on the specific parcel, design, site conditions and market at the time you build; verify with the building department at (585) 617-6195 and get a real estimate before you commit. Sources: Offsite / Aldo cost engine (costEngine.js + constants.js); zoning dataset (municipalData.js) ; NYS statewide tax-parcel layer, vacant residential full market value per acre.