Wow, am I envious! I live in the Tampa Bay area and we are hoping to come in somewhere about $110-120/ft. Average prices are between $175-300/ft. The main thing to consider is that our building codes are probably some of the strictest in the country due to the hurricanes. The home is built to withstand 130mph winds. It is built from concrete block which definitely increases our cost substantially. As we are the GC, we did hire a manager to over see the entire project (he also did the slab/block/frame). But the money we are paying him to manage is definetly worth the peace of mind! He is very reputable in our area and has many many contacts so we are able to get his pricing. In the end, his management fee will probably wash with the savings. We are also going pretty high end with everything else from windows to appliances to flooring and so forth. In the end, it will all be worth it. However, our cost to build does not include what we paid for the lot. Land is NOT abundant here and you pay for it - ALOT. Our lot had a home which we initially wanted to add on to. But after talking with our architect and engineer, the cost was more to do that (by going up a floor) than it was to demo and start over. We went that route since then we are not limited to the footprint and could then have exactly what we wanted. Our new home is 4000 sq ft living/8900 sq ft under roof incl 1500 sq ft covered lanai/3 car garage/semi-detached 4 car garage. So, with all of this, in the end we should be about $450K (not including pool). For Florida, this is not bad at all.

JDS, I don't know where you are in the country but for a residential house I only charge $90 per receptacle opening. Yeah, I've been told "about $100 per receptacle", but this meant wiring a new house -- not adding one outlet to an existing house. At that price, it's not a budget breaker, but putting in an extra few in every room "just because" would be a wasteful expenditure. And obviously some receptacles will cost more than others: The grounded outlet near your bathroom sink will cost a little more than the ones around the edge of your bedroom. The single outlet in your attic will cost more than the couple sets placed close together for your great room TV area or your computer desk. I assume that the new outlets that include USBs run a little more than standard units. So you should expect some slight variation. The goal shouldn't be to over-wire or flood the house with electrical outlets; rather, the goal should be to plan carefully and "right-size" your electrical needs.

My neighbours did this; took about 5 years start to finish (from the time they bought the trailer to the time they sold it). It apparently took some convincing of the county because they were restricted to one house on the piece of land...so having the mobile home AND the new house was against zoning bylaws. Thankfully the county agreed if the mobile home was gone when the moved into the new house. There was about a month in which they camped out in the yard because the mobile home was sold and gone but the house hadn't passed final inspection. All that being said, it worked, they have a gorgeous house and no debts. That being said, they had TONS of family to help them with the build, and she was a stay at home mom (they have 5 kids!), and dad was a trucker who would be home for stretches at a time. Personally, I built my place in a year working only evenings and weekends plus my holiday time, without an entire crew of workers. $50k wouldn't have gotten it to lock-in stage, but it would have covered my excavation, foundation and at least 1/2 of framing (except I dug my own basement and poured my own foundation....so we're talking material costs). Where there's a will, there's a way right??

Virgil said: "More to the point, cost vary due to complexity, quality and frankly, lack of thought resulting in change orders during construction." Exactly. Are you building a basic house with clamshell molding or no molding around the windows, inexpensive carpeting throughout, minimal tile, laminate counters, etc or are you building a top of the line house with 10" crown moldings, 8" baseboard molding, calcutta marble tile in the bathrooms, Sub zero quality appliances, hand scraped hardwood floors throughout, and fireplaces in every room? Are you building in a HCOLA area or in you in a rural area where land and labor are inexpensive? A great example is my house which is custom. If I go with his basic features, which are still very nice, my cost per square foot will be $217 a square foot. Not cheap but it does include granite, tile, wood floors, a pool with hot tub, security system, a Bosch appliance package, tankless water system, semi custom cabinets, Kohler quality fixtures and many other options. However if I add every single option at the maximum price, meaning I decide I can't live without the $50 a square foot tile, or need more expensive wood flooring, the elevator, a full outdoor kitchen, upgraded moldings, a fancier staircase, etc, etc, the price could jump to as high as $279 a square foot. I can go outside my target area to an area that is 5-10 miles from where we're building and can build a house for 1/2 the price per square foot. Same zip code even. So as Virgil is saying, it really means nothing what the square foot price to build is.