How much does a house cost in GURPS $?

[Trainik]

Hey everyone,

I'm running a long term, town building game, and one of my players and I are putting together a somewhat abstract system for the town's budget. However, to balance it, we need a few points of reference. Perhaps the simplest one is: how much does a house cost, in GURPS dollars? It's a TL 5 campaign, and the houses in question are small but well built brick houses. I know it's going to be somewhat arbitrary, but I don't really even have a starting point.

Any other points of reference would be helpful as well, e.g. a barn, a windmill, a town hall, etc.

Thanks!

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Trainik

Hey everyone,

I'm running a long term, town building game, and one of my players and I are putting together a somewhat abstract system for the town's budget. However, to balance it, we need a few points of reference. Perhaps the simplest one is: how much does a house cost, in GURPS dollars? It's a TL 5 campaign, and the houses in question are small but well built brick houses. I know it's going to be somewhat arbitrary, but I don't really even have a starting point.

GURPS $ are constant value, so you could just use the modern (well 2004 USD) price of a comparable house.

This actually isn't too bad. Prices varied a lot depending on exact year and location, but for an eastern US city about 1880, USD 1500-2000 (GURPS$ 30-40,000) would be a typical average. This may seem a little low compared to modern averages, but remember these buildings are mostly unelectifed, may not be centrally heated, and include a non-trivial number of structures without plumbing in the average, you might not be able to get more than $30,000 for an exact duplicate in 2004. Houses in good neighborhoods (and presumably, better infrastructure) went 3 to 5 times that.

Twenty years earlier $500 (GURPS $11,000) would've been a reasonable average, but that's an even less impressive unheated shed with detached outhouse by modern standards.

[Anders]

Aren't houses part of the 80% of Wealth that goes into non-adventuring gear? So, less than 80% of starting Wealth. But probably not much less.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Aren't houses part of the 80% of Wealth that goes into non-adventuring gear? So, less than 80% of starting Wealth. But probably not much less.

That's if you own the house. If you have a mortgage, the bank owns most of the house; you own only your equity.

Bill Stoddard

[Aneirin]

Yep. We need a new book, GURPS: Mortgages!

(a modern day mortgage should not be above 40% of monthly income...well it may be, but a bank would not lend unless your income at the time of the mortgage lead to a maximum of 40% mortgage payments)

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Aren't houses part of the 80% of Wealth that goes into non-adventuring gear? So, less than 80% of starting Wealth. But probably not much less.

B266 says 'What Cost of Living Gets You', so it seems tied to Status.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Aren't houses part of the 80% of Wealth that goes into non-adventuring gear? So, less than 80% of starting Wealth. But probably not much less.

Taking any part of the GURPS economic model too seriously isn't a good idea. Its better to look at this as an accounting convention: either you get x stuff (and a lot of boring things which will rarely help on an adventure) or 5x (but you have to list everything and don't get a fixed home or free means of transport). After all, we know that the starting wealth figure is probably too low for both the modern US and England circa 1300, but it works great as a game convention.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

B266 says 'What Cost of Living Gets You', so it seems tied to Status.

This removes the need to ask "what sort of house - a one-room shack, a mansion, or something in between?"

[KeeperOfEclipse]

I'll suggest you to look Low-Tech Companion 3 (p. 33): there is a section about building material and quality.
Naturally it depends on how much houses (and constructions, in general) are important in your adventures. Are your players going to use them a lot? If not, I wouldn't bother much. Are they a bunch of rule-lawyer players, so you have to carefully plan every move but you couldn't care less of house prices? Forbid them to look up rules.

[Trainik]

No, they're not rules lawyers, I just need to balance a system around a rough idea of what a house costs.