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The conversation happens in living rooms across La Vista every week. Your family has outgrown your home. You need more space—another bedroom, a home office, a proper mudroom, a larger kitchen. The question isn't whether you need more space. It's how you're going to get it.
Most families assume moving is the obvious answer. Sell your current home, buy something bigger, and solve the space problem in one transaction.
Then reality sets in.
That 2,400-square-foot home you bought for $285,000 in 2019? Similar homes in your neighborhood now list for $425,000-$465,000. To get meaningfully more space—say, 3,200 square feet—you're looking at $550,000-$625,000 in today's La Vista market.
Suddenly the math gets complicated. Selling costs, moving expenses, higher property taxes, increased utility bills, and the emotional cost of leaving a neighborhood you love all factor into the equation.
At Davis Contracting, we've helped hundreds of La Vista families work through this decision. We've completed home additions across La Vista ranging from 400-square-foot primary suite additions to 1,200-square-foot second-story additions that essentially double the home.
We've also seen families make both choices—some add on and stay, others move to larger homes. This comprehensive guide provides the honest financial analysis you need to make the right decision for your specific situation.
Let's start with a realistic breakdown of what moving actually costs, because most homeowners dramatically underestimate the total expense.
Current home scenario:
Selling costs: $32,000-$38,000
Real estate commissions at 5-6% on a $450,000 sale: $22,500-$27,000. Closing costs including title insurance, attorney fees, and prorated taxes: $3,500-$5,000. Pre-sale repairs and staging to maximize sale price: $4,000-$8,000. Those small projects you've been putting off—painting, carpet replacement, minor repairs—suddenly become necessary to compete with other listings.
One La Vista family we worked with discovered during their pre-sale inspection that their deck needed $6,800 in repairs to meet current code requirements. Another found that updating their 15-year-old kitchen (not fully remodeling, just updating) cost $12,000 but added $18,000 to their sale price—net positive, but still a check they had to write before closing.
Buying costs: $18,000-$26,000
Down payment beyond your equity varies based on your target home price and financing, but closing costs on a $580,000 purchase typically run $12,000-$16,000 including origination fees, appraisal, title insurance, and prepaid items.
Home inspection and due diligence: $800-$1,500. Moving costs for a typical 2,400-square-foot home: $2,500-$4,500 for professional movers, or countless hours and rental trucks if you do it yourself. Immediate repairs or updates to your new home: $2,000-$5,000 minimum—even move-in ready homes need something.
Higher ongoing costs: $650-$1,100/month
Your new $580,000 home at current interest rates (approximately 6.5-7% in early 2026) means a monthly payment of $3,850-$4,100 including taxes and insurance—$1,365-$1,615 more than your current payment.
Higher property taxes on a more expensive home: $350-$550 more annually. Increased utility costs for a larger home: $125-$200 more monthly. Higher insurance premiums: $60-$100 more monthly.
First-year total moving cost: $58,000-$78,000
That's your out-of-pocket selling and buying costs plus 12 months of increased housing expenses. And that assumes everything goes smoothly—no deal falling through, no extended bridge financing, no unexpected repairs in your new home.
Five-year total moving cost: $105,000-$145,000
When you account for five years of increased monthly costs, moving becomes an extraordinarily expensive way to gain space.
Now let's examine what that same space costs through a well-executed home addition.
400-square-foot primary suite addition: $135,000-$185,000
This transforms your home by adding a luxurious primary bedroom with walk-in closet and spa-like bathroom. You gain the space you need while maintaining your current location and monthly payment structure.
Our recent La Vista primary suite addition project cost $162,000 and included:
600-square-foot family room addition: $165,000-$225,000
Perfect for families needing more living space without moving. This typically includes a large family room or great room addition with proper foundation, HVAC, and finishing that seamlessly integrates with your existing home.
800-square-foot two-story addition: $240,000-$320,000
This is where additions become truly transformative. A two-story addition can add a primary suite upstairs plus expanded kitchen and family room downstairs, essentially creating a new home experience without moving.
1,200-square-foot second-story addition: $350,000-$475,000
The most ambitious option—essentially building a second floor over part or all of your existing footprint. This works when your lot doesn't allow outward expansion but you need substantial space.
Let's compare realistic scenarios for a La Vista family needing 600 additional square feet of living space:
OPTION 1: MOVE TO LARGER HOME
Year 1 costs: $62,000
Years 2-5 cumulative: $83,000 additional
Five-year total: $145,000Ten-year total: $265,000 (continuing increased payments)
Plus intangibles: new commute patterns, different schools, leaving neighborhood, emotional disruption
OPTION 2: 600-SQUARE-FOOT ADDITION
Construction cost: $185,000Financing at 7% HELOC: $1,550/month
Five-year interest cost: $28,000
Five-year total: $213,000 (principal + interest)
Ten-year total: $213,000 (paid off after ~10 years)
Plus benefits: stay in current location, keep current mortgage rate (likely lower than today's rates), equity building in home you already love, increased home value
Understanding current market conditions helps explain why additions make particular sense for La Vista homeowners in 2026.
Limited inventory creates premium pricing
La Vista's desirable location—excellent schools, reasonable commute to Omaha, strong community amenities—means homes don't stay on market long. Current inventory sits at historic lows, typically 1.8-2.4 months of supply.
This seller's market means you'll get a great price when selling, but you'll also pay premium prices when buying. The advantage you gain selling in a hot market vanishes when you're also buying in that same market.
Interest rate reality
Many La Vista homeowners secured mortgages at 2.5-4% during 2020-2021's historic low-rate period. Moving means giving up that favorable rate and refinancing at today's 6.5-7.5% rates.
On a $450,000 mortgage, that rate difference costs an extra $900-$1,400 monthly—$10,800-$16,800 annually just in interest.
A home addition can be financed through home equity without touching your low-rate first mortgage. Even if you use a HELOC at 7-8%, you're only paying higher rates on the addition amount, not your entire home value.
Property tax considerations
La Vista property taxes currently run approximately 1.8-2.1% of assessed value annually. Moving from a $450,000 home to a $580,000 home increases your annual property tax bill by $2,340-$2,730.
A home addition increases your home's assessed value proportionally—if you add $185,000 in value through an addition, expect annual property taxes to increase by $3,330-$3,885. However, you're building equity with that investment rather than simply paying more for the same equity position.
Appreciation dynamics
La Vista home values have appreciated 6.8% annually over the past five years. A $185,000 addition to a $450,000 home creates a $635,000 property that appreciates on the full value.
Over 10 years at 5% annual appreciation (conservative compared to recent trends), that $635,000 home becomes worth approximately $1,034,000. The addition essentially allows your home to "grow with" market appreciation rather than requiring you to sell and rebuy to capture that appreciation.
Financial analysis tells part of the story, but homeowners consistently report that non-financial factors heavily influence their decision to add on rather than move.
Neighborhood relationships and community ties
Many La Vista families describe their neighborhood as "where we want to raise our kids" or "where we've built our life." You know your neighbors. Your kids have friends on the block. You're active in the community.
Moving means rebuilding all of those connections. For some families, that's exciting—a fresh start. For others, it's a significant loss that's hard to quantify financially but deeply felt emotionally.
One family we worked with on a La Vista home addition told us: "We could afford to move to a bigger house, but our kids are 8, 10, and 12. They've grown up with the neighbor kids. We're two blocks from their school. My husband walks to work. Moving would save us maybe $20,000 over five years, but we'd lose things we can't put a price on."
School district continuity
La Vista's strong schools are a primary reason families move to the area. If your children are established in their schools, moving—even within La Vista—might require changing schools.
For families with middle or high school students, that disruption can be significant. Home additions let you gain needed space while maintaining school consistency.
Lot and location characteristics
Your current lot might have features that attracted you originally: mature trees, privacy, location near parks or trails, a perfect orientation for morning sun. Finding those same characteristics in a new home at your price point might be impossible.
We recently completed an addition for a La Vista family with an exceptionally private wooded lot backing to protected green space. They explored moving but couldn't find anything comparable under $650,000. A $210,000 addition gave them the space they needed while preserving what they loved about their location.
Home customization and sweat equity
Many homeowners have invested significant time and money customizing their current home: landscaping, finished basements, custom closets, smart home systems, garage workshops.
Moving means either abandoning those investments or paying premium prices for homes with similar customization. Adding on preserves your previous investments while expanding what you love about your current home.
Emotional attachment and memories
This is the factor that purely rational financial analysis misses entirely: the emotional value of staying in the home where your children grew up, where you've celebrated holidays, where you've built your family's story.
For some families, this emotional attachment is minimal—a house is just a structure. For others, it's profound and worth significant financial premium to preserve.
Despite advantages of home additions, moving is sometimes the better choice financially. Here's when:
Your current home has fundamental problems
If your home has structural issues, obsolete systems requiring replacement (roof, HVAC, electrical, plumbing), or layout problems that can't be solved through additions, the cost of addressing those issues plus adding space might exceed the cost of moving to a well-maintained larger home.
We've consulted with families where honest analysis revealed they needed $45,000 in deferred maintenance plus $175,000 for their desired addition. At $220,000 total investment into a home with significant age-related issues, moving made more sense.
Your lot won't accommodate the addition you need
Setback requirements, easements, lot coverage limitations, or physical site constraints sometimes make additions impractical or impossible.
La Vista, like most municipalities, requires minimum setbacks from property lines. If your home already sits close to those limits, expanding might not be feasible without variance requests that aren't guaranteed approval.
Drainage, utility easements, or topography challenges can also make additions prohibitively expensive. If the cost of site work and engineering to make an addition possible exceeds $30,000-$50,000, moving might be more economical.
You need significantly more space
If you need 1,500+ additional square feet, you're looking at $450,000-$650,000 in addition costs. At that investment level, carefully compare:
Your current location no longer fits your needs
Job changes, commute patterns, or lifestyle shifts might make your current location less ideal. If you're driving 45 minutes to work daily and could cut that to 15 minutes by moving, the time savings might justify moving costs.
Market timing creates unusual opportunities
Occasionally, market inefficiencies create opportunities. Perhaps foreclosures or motivated sellers in your target area create below-market buying opportunities. Or perhaps you can sell your current home at a premium to a specific buyer who desperately wants your location.
These scenarios are situational and temporary, but when they align, moving might make exceptional financial sense.
Beyond the numbers we've already discussed, several costs consistently surprise families who decide to move:
Temporary housing costs if timing doesn't align perfectly: $2,500-$5,000/month for 1-3 months if you must move out before your new home closes.
Furniture and decor for larger spaces: New homes typically need $8,000-$15,000 in additional furniture, window treatments, and decor to avoid empty-room syndrome.
Lawn equipment and tools for different property: $2,000-$4,000 if your new home has significantly different lawn care needs or your old mower/snowblower doesn't fit the new property.
Utility setup and deposits: $500-$1,200 for connection fees, deposits, and service initiation charges.
Home security and automation: $1,500-$4,000 if your current home's systems don't transfer or aren't compatible with your new home.
Learning curve for new systems: This is impossible to quantify, but every home has quirks. Learning how your new HVAC system operates, where water shutoffs are located, how to maintain specific features—these take time and sometimes costly mistakes.
One family we know moved to a larger La Vista home and spent $3,200 fixing foundation drainage issues they didn't discover until the first heavy rain. Their home inspector had noted "evidence of previous moisture management" but cleared the current system. The "current system" failed within six weeks of moving in.
Beyond avoiding moving costs, home additions provide unique benefits:
You maintain your current mortgage rate
This cannot be overstated in 2026's higher-rate environment. Keeping a 3.5% mortgage while financing an addition separately means you're paying competitive rates only on the addition amount, not your entire home value.
You control the disruption timeline
Moving happens on compressed timelines dictated by buyers, sellers, and closing dates. You might close on your old home before your new home is ready, forcing temporary housing situations.
Home additions happen on your timeline. We worked with a La Vista family who specifically scheduled their addition during a summer when their kids would be at grandparents' houses for three weeks. The most disruptive phase happened while the family was out of town.
You get exactly what you want
Moving means compromising. That perfect house in your target neighborhood has the square footage you need but a kitchen you hate, bathrooms that are dated, and a basement that's unfinished.
Home additions mean getting precisely what you want: your ideal primary suite, your perfect kitchen layout, your dream home office. No compromise necessary.
You build equity more efficiently
Every dollar invested in a quality home addition builds equity in your property. In La Vista's strong market, well-executed additions typically return 75-95% of their cost in increased home value immediately, and often 100%+ within 5-7 years as the market appreciates.
Moving involves spending $50,000-$70,000 in transaction costs that build zero equity—pure expense with no return.
Your home solves your family's evolving needs
Children grow. Work patterns change. Lifestyle needs evolve. A well-planned addition can anticipate future needs, not just solve current ones.
We recently designed a La Vista home addition for a family with three young children. The addition included the expanded living space they needed immediately, plus a flexible bonus room designed to transition from playroom to teen hangout space to home gym as family needs evolve. Thirty years from now, that same space might become caregiver quarters for aging-in-place scenarios.
Understanding financing options helps you make informed decisions about whether an addition fits your financial situation.
Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC): 7.0-8.5% variable rate
Best for: Homeowners with substantial equity who want flexibility and don't mind variable rates.
Advantages: Only pay interest on funds used, flexibility to draw funds as needed during construction, potentially lower closing costs than other options.
Disadvantages: Variable rates can increase, interest-only payments during draw period might not build equity, rates are currently relatively high compared to historical norms.
Cash-Out Refinance: 6.5-7.5% fixed rate
Best for: Homeowners with higher current mortgage rates who can improve their rate while accessing equity.
Advantages: Fixed rate provides payment certainty, potentially lower rate than HELOC, single payment simplifies budgeting.
Disadvantages: If your current mortgage rate is low (under 5%), refinancing your entire mortgage to access equity might cost more in increased interest than the addition financing.
One La Vista homeowner with a $385,000 remaining balance at 3.25% discovered that refinancing to access $180,000 for an addition would increase their overall interest costs by $286,000 over the life of the loan—far more than the addition's cost.
Construction Loan: 6.5-7.5% during construction, then permanent financing
Best for: Major additions requiring staged funding releases as construction progresses.
Advantages: Funds released based on construction milestones, interest-only payments during construction, converts to permanent financing at completion.
Disadvantages: More complex application and approval process, typically requires 20% equity minimum, not all lenders offer construction-to-permanent products.
Home Equity Loan (Fixed-Rate): 6.5-8.0% fixed rate
Best for: Homeowners who want predictable payments and fixed costs.
Advantages: Fixed rate and term provide certainty, lump sum disbursement simplifies planning, separate from first mortgage allows keeping favorable existing rate.
Disadvantages: Higher rates than HELOCs initially, paying interest on full amount immediately even if construction hasn't started, less flexibility than HELOC structure.
Cash payment
Best for: Homeowners with substantial liquid assets who want to avoid financing costs.
Advantages: No interest costs, no approval process, no monthly payments, maintains existing mortgage unchanged.
Disadvantages: Large capital outlay, opportunity cost if those funds could earn investment returns exceeding addition financing costs, reduces liquid reserves for emergencies.
Our design-build process for home additions starts with understanding your specific situation—not just your space needs, but your financial goals, timeline flexibility, and long-term plans.
We've worked with families who ultimately decided moving made more sense for their situation. When analysis reveals that adding on would make your home the most expensive in the neighborhood by $100,000+ or that your lot simply won't accommodate the addition you need, we're honest about those limitations.
But for most La Vista families, a well-designed addition provides the space they need while maintaining location, community connections, and financial efficiency.
Our process includes:
Comprehensive financial analysis: We help you understand true costs of moving versus adding on specific to your situation—not generic comparisons, but real numbers based on your home value, remaining mortgage, and financing options.
Lot feasibility assessment: Before you invest in design work, we evaluate whether your lot can accommodate your desired addition considering setbacks, easements, utilities, and site conditions.
Design that maximizes value: Our additions are designed not just for immediate needs but for long-term value. We consider how the addition affects your home's total value relative to neighborhood comps, ensuring you're not over-improving.
Integration that looks original: Nothing screams "addition" like mismatched exterior finishes or awkward transitions. Our additions seamlessly integrate with existing homes—visitors can't tell what was original and what was added.
Minimal disruption: We've refined our construction processes to minimize disruption to your daily life. Strategic staging, dust containment, noise management, and respectful scheduling make living through construction as tolerable as possible.
Transparent budgeting: You know what your addition costs before construction begins. No surprises, no hidden fees, no change orders for things that should have been included originally.
The Hoffman family: Primary suite addition - $167,000
Challenge: Three children sharing two bathrooms created morning chaos. No primary suite meant parents lacked private retreat space.
Solution: 480-square-foot addition including 300-square-foot primary bedroom, 180-square-foot luxury bathroom with dual vanities and walk-in shower, plus walk-in closet.
Alternative considered: Moving to 4-bedroom home with primary suite would have cost $195,000 in moving and increased housing costs over five years.
Result: Stayed in beloved neighborhood two blocks from elementary school, gained needed space, built $160,000+ in equity based on post-addition appraisal.
The Martinez family: Two-story addition - $285,000
Challenge: Growing business required home office space. Two teenagers needed separate bedrooms. Kitchen felt cramped for family cooking.
Solution: 850-square-foot two-story addition. First floor: expanded kitchen and family room. Second floor: two bedrooms plus office space.
Alternative considered: Moving to 5-bedroom home with office would have required $650,000+ purchase price, $125,000 in moving and increased costs over five years.
Result: Transformed 1,800-square-foot home into 2,650-square-foot home perfectly configured for their family. Home office allows business owner to work from home 3 days weekly. Post-addition appraisal showed $265,000 value increase.
The Thompson family: Family room and guest suite - $198,000
Challenge: Parents aging and needing occasional extended stays. No guest accommodations except kids' rooms. Family room too small for gathering.
Solution: 620-square-foot addition including large family room, guest bedroom with private bathroom, and storage space.
Alternative considered: Moving to home with main-floor guest suite would have cost $180,000 in moving and increased housing costs over five years—similar costs but would have sacrificed location and current low mortgage rate.
Result: Created aging-in-place solution for parents. Guest suite accommodates extended family visits. Kept 3.25% mortgage rate versus refinancing entire home at 7%+. Aging parents contribute $800/month toward the addition financing, essentially making the guest suite self-funding.
Use this decision framework to evaluate whether adding on or moving makes more sense for your situation:
Financial analysis:
Lot evaluation:
Home value considerations:
Lifestyle factors:
Emotional factors:
Future considerations:
For most La Vista families facing space constraints in 2026, adding on makes better financial sense than moving when:
Moving makes more sense when:
There's no universal right answer—only the right answer for your specific situation.
What matters is making an informed decision based on realistic financial analysis, clear understanding of your options, and honest assessment of what you value most.
Ready to explore whether a home addition makes sense for your La Vista home?
Contact Davis Contracting to schedule a complimentary consultation. We'll assess your lot, discuss your needs, provide realistic cost estimates, and help you understand whether adding on or moving makes better financial sense for your family.
We serve homeowners throughout La Vista, Papillion, Bellevue, and the entire Omaha metro with our comprehensive design-build approach to home additions.
Your space problem has a solution. Let's find the one that makes the most sense for you.
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