Nobody can price your kitchen over the phone, and a page that gives you one number for your city is guessing. What can be said is what sets the price, how much the local labor market moves it, and what real permit records show.
What sets the price
- The size of the job. A refresh keeps the cabinets and the layout. A replacement swaps cabinets and countertops on the same layout. A new layout moves plumbing, gas, wiring or walls, and brings in more trades, drawings and inspections. See Kitchen remodeling.
- How much cabinet and countertop there is. Cabinets are counted along the wall, countertops by area, so a longer run or a bigger island costs more of everything.
- The cabinets. Refacing keeps the boxes; stock, semi-custom and custom cabinets differ in sizes, finishes and lead times. See Cabinet refacing.
- The countertop material, and whether the slab has to be cut around a sink, a cooktop or an island.
- Appliances, and whether a new one needs a new circuit, a gas line or a vented hood. See Electrical and appliances.
- The house. Old wiring, walls that are not straight, a floor that is not level, or a house built before 1978 that needs lead-safe work all add time. See Lead-safe remodeling.
- Permits and inspections, which every building department prices on its own schedule. See Permits.
Labor costs differ by area
A remodel is mostly labor, and the trades a kitchen needs are paid very differently from one metro area to another. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the national median for electricians at $30.38 an hour in May 2025; across the metro areas on this site, the medians run from $23.88 in the Killeen-Temple area of Texas to $44.63 in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area, and plumbers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area earned a median $48.86. Those are wages, not what a contractor charges, but they are one reason the same kitchen can cost more in one place than in another. Every town page on this site shows the figures for its area.
What permit records show
Building permits record a declared value for the work, and some cities publish them. In Los Angeles, the Department of Building and Safety issued 2,516 permits in 2025 that describe kitchen work in one- and two-family homes. The median declared value was $20,035, and half of them fell between $10,000 and $40,450.
Read those with care. The declared value is the owner's or contractor's own figure on the application, it sets the permit fee, and it often leaves out cabinets, appliances and finishes bought separately. Kitchens that needed no permit at all, such as cabinet and countertop swaps, are not in the records.
Getting a price you can compare
Ask two or three remodelers to price the same written scope: the same cabinets, countertop, appliances and changes. A price for "a new kitchen" is not comparable to another price for "a new kitchen". See The contract for what the written scope should cover.
Updated 2026-10-12.