Prices dropped? Not that I've noticed. What we are getting however is pretty good response out of the prime subs.

I posted a similar question a few weeks ago and there was a brief conversation about it. You might try to find that thread. I don't see prices going down significantly.
The price of fuel is really driving the cost of material and getting people and goods to the job site. I've heard that some material has come down. I would guess that there are more contractors competing for fewer jobs and that might be a good thing for you.
Here's something that worked for us... we didn't plan it, it just happened this way. We decided that in order to save money, we would finish the basement ourselves. We had the GC rough it in. Then, as it happened, we had two subs ask us whether they could do the work for us at a discounted rate. Both were experiencing a slow down in work and they had the extra time. It worked out really well. The drywaller gave us a steep discount and got the work done quickly.

I am a framing carpenter and brick mason in NC and have watch the prices on some material go and down.I am like a lady watching for a dress sale.And if you are not in a big hurray and want to save wait and buy when the price is wright for you.
Concert here is up so is brick and masonry cement.The price of brick will depend on size(it counts)and if you use any color but gray it will coast more but it ads to the look.I see the invoices so I know what i am talking about.

No, The price of building in a new subdivision in SW Louisiana is ridiculous. Our insurance USAA won't insure for cost to build as they go by national tables, which don't support builder's cost to replace! USAA rep claims that price quoted by builders is driven by grant and insurance money from last two hurricanes in State not by actual costs.
We've mentioned this to our builder, his suggestion was to change insurance companies!

the current bid on our custom build dropped 10% from the original bid we got last september. same builder. some materials are down (we noticed the biggest drop in lumber) as are subs. more people with less work to do.

we considered the first bid a bit greedy so it's not that we feel we're now getting some kind of bargain. we feel it's more reasonable. we're building what i consider a large home (6800 sq ft) so every little bit helps.

jimjim.....are you in the Charlotte area? I live next to Charlotte.

Come on....6800 sq ft????? Lets save some resources for our decendents. Don't just build something huge because you can afford it....

So garymunson, you joined GW today just to slam a member for the size of her house? Nice guy. You know nothing about her family size, circumstances or anything about her except the posted SF of her new home. Good grief. Save us from self-righteousness.

Back to the OP: In our area, builders are going under left and right because they cannot build a new house for anything close to the resale value of a similar house. Material costs have not declined enough to offset the increase in fuel, and we're seeing estimates increase as folks factor in the higher cost of getting to and from the job. As others have mentioned, you may find responsiveness has improved. However, in my own case when I've tried to get work done on our new house by the subs our builder used, they've laid off so many people that it's taking longer to get work scheduled.

More to the point of garymunson's rant against large houses is his underlying assumption that society is in imminent danger of exhausting our raw materials. It's a sad testimony to the sorry state of our educational system that people can (and do) accept such ludicrous notions.

An understanding of history, science and economics clearly demonstrates why we will never, ever run out of oil (a supposed "finite resource") or any other resource for which humankind has a want or need...providing we don't constrain our capabilities through wrong-headed legislation from those who share garymunson's educational handicaps. Long before the last barrel of oil is consumed, better, cheaper alternatives will replace it. And the same goes for any other resource you can think of.

Bob

Thanks for the feedback. We wanted some ideas before we begin to talk to builders here. And indeed we are not wanting to build 6800SF! We are only two people and a huge grand piano. Now we have 3000, but it's configured ineffectively for our needs. We think we can cover our needs in 2200.

Seems to me prices are going up, if anything: whatever price drop has occured as a result of lower demand is being eaten up by higher transportation/shipping.

Ditto oruboris.

Contractors (except well drillers here in the Southeastern Drought) are much more responsive and are calling me back to see if the work is still available.

I had just a couple more thoughts on this over the weekend. Not sure if they will help... Our builder was upfront and honest with us about the cost of material. We paid the price he got from the supplier. If something came down, that saving was passed on to us. As it turned out, many of the bids for material came in lower than expected (we also picked out some less expensive finishes) so we did end up paying less than the original contract. If you can work this with your builder, you might be able to see some savings if material prices go down.

We are building a 5900 sq ft home and considered scrapping it to go with existing. The dream house just wasn't for sale like we had in our minds. We went back to the builder who repriced things and dropped the price $20,000. They said most of that was in the lumber. Watch "Ax-men" on history channel for more info about why lumber prices are low.

In regards to the economy... don't worry about that for building. Worry about the election. If Obama is elected, Bush's tax cuts will expire and then he'll raise them again, so top rates will suffer an increase of approx 15-20% from current levels. Price that into your budgets.

Oh, and I don't mind building a MANSION at 5900 square feet. (www.emcram.com/house) I consider it spurring the local economy and Reaganomics working again. The resources used are all renewable (except the small amt of petroleum used) and by cutting down existing trees you're freeing up carbon and sunlight to be used by the one that replaces it. Redistribution of carbon wealth, straight up that freak's alley for wealth envy.

My materials bid dropped $17,000 from a few months ago. Part of this is because my builder is doing a good job of shopping around the bid to get the best prices, but I can't imagine all of it is.

However, my husband and I are thinking about dropping the asking price on our current house in hopes of getting it sold, so the savings are only going to even out the diminished return on this sale. I guess I'll take it either way!

hoosierdoc -- Will you be installing solar panels or windmills to heat/cool your space?

I hope Obama gets elected. We can use the extra tax funds to help pay for the debt my grandkids will owe due to this stupid misguided war.

We have some fear about building in this economy. We have not seen any drop in the cost of building. This is our first home so we did not take a hit on our existing homes price but I would take a drop in equity instead of no equity.

I figure, long term, we will be just fine.

garymunster: forgot to mention we're putting up a playhouse for our little girl as well. that should really burn your britches, LOL!

My husband is a builder and we are building our home. We recently reworked our bids for the same house from 18mths ago. In the Dallas/Ft. Worth area the cost has definately jumped...cost of copper, lumber (some mills closed), and concrete is much higher. Of course Dallas is the "most" stable home area in the US right now so subs are so desperate for work, either.

Kateskouros... I can think of no better use of resources than a fine one family home. But get much over 10,000 square feet and perhaps I'd agree with Gary that there was some excess involved. Subjective, I know.

Mikeyvon... The war debt is small compared to the debt caused by stupid, misguided social programs, especially the middle class entitlements. Obama is likely to expand them... socialized medicine?

And our resources are not in danger of exhaustion as Bob points out.

Julian Lincoln Simon, the Cato Institute economist, famously challenged environmentalist Paul Ehrlich in 1980 to wager a bet over what the price of metals would be a decade later. Ehrlich selected a basket of five metals that he thought would rise in price with increasing scarcity and depletion.

However, Simon won the bet, with ALL FIVE metals dropping in price over the ten years.

Ehrlich, the environmentalist, selected the five metals himself, and at the time of the bet called it an "astonishing offer" that he was accepting "before other greedy people jump in."

In the case of each of the five metals, better technology allowed for either more efficient use of existing resources, or replacement of those resources with something more abundant and less expensive, which is the point of Simon's theories, which challenge the notion of a pending Malthusian catastrophe.

Terry