He may already own the Iron Ballusters and would need to purchase the wood ballusters. Virgil is correct, wood railings and ballusters are a totally different installation than wood railing and iron ballisters. And that is not counting the finishing. The iron ballusters probably come to him already finished so their may be additional expense with site finishing of the wood product. Just because a product may be less expensive to purchase in a raw unfinished and uninstalled state does not make it cheaper in the overall picture. Plus many builders charge a "change order" fee which would affect the price as well. This is of course all supposition on our parts and the only way to find out the truth is to ask and hopefully he will be honest with you in his response.

The following link shows a similar railing with wood handrail and posts. I have made some like you are describing, most steps will require 3 balusters per tread to be up to current codes (no more than 4" openings) a wood spindle at the front and back of the tread and a complimentary wrought iron spindle in the center of each tread looks nice. It is good to use a heavier than normal iron spindle for the center and a fairly thin wood spindle for them to match well. Hope this helps http://www.coblemetalworks.com/railings44.html Here is a link that might be useful: oak and wrought iron railing

I agree it is more a matter of style of the home. But "out West" here they are still used a *lot* in high-end homes, which are usually fairly ornate. That being said, do what you will love. You will be living there. Maybe you will start a NJ trend. :)

I’m in the same dilemma with our current house (built 1985) and have decided that I’m going to paint the balusters and the base white and leave the bannister and posts stained. I looked through tons of online photos and that configuration to me seemed to make the biggest impact. We put iron balusters in a house we built 12 years ago because it was the norm for new builds and I wonder if at some point iron will start to look dated whereas wood balusters have always been around and could argue that they’re “timeless.”