Good question- I'd be interested too, I'm in Indiana. And are they true costs ?

Concerning lumber, most "lumbies" that Im aware of will give you a materials take off estimate from your list. They wont typically give you an independent pricing on 2x's, plywood, engineered lumber, etc., but will give you a bid on the whole house package if you come up with that list. It will be hard to know what you are going to need structurally wise concerning widths/loads until you have your plans engineered.

There is a subscription service that has what you want, but it is aimed at pros and is price accordingly. Sorry, I don't remember the name, only that they have a web site. I stumbled on it by accident

Google might find it with a well worded query.

I doubt you will find what you are looking for. RS Means is what I believe Creekside is thinking of but I believe its geared to commercial construction. For preliminary pricing I would suggest discussing it with local builders for costs /sf as a starting point and then if you want details, call the local trades for costs for their services and materials.

You need to talk to the builders in your specific area. In my area, one of the custom builders we talked to told us he starts off at $135/sf.

If you're just looking for trends and not specific dollar quotes, you can go online (google) and find the daily quotes on the commodity markets, which will include lumber and copper and undoubtedly more. Some sites graph the data over time so you will see the trend. These numbers are indicative of wholesale prices. They're on the move up right now because of the anticipation of an economic recovery (despite the lack of support for the stimulus legislation from most Republicans. That's OK, theyre on record as voting NO). Anyway, lumber itself may be slow to recover because housing is one sector that is still struggling.

If you are looking at lumber alone, there are ways of tracking that. I would just go to a lumber yard and ask or ask a builder or framer.

But you might not know what you are looking at. I mean if I told you a 2x4 is costing $1.50 right now - would you know if that was low/high/trending up or down.

The commodity (lumber) is trading at $240 or so. When we built, it was $160 (1st q of 2009) - or should I say when we framed. The analysis is "Extremely Bullish".

So many of these things are tied to oil - concrete and roofing. And if they aren't, then they are tied to commodities that roughly track oil - like copper or lumber. Well - I just looked and copper climbed earlier than oil so if you look at the last 12 months it is straight up but the 2 year is completely different. It is $3 and it peaked in 2007/8 at $4. Its nadir was $1

What is the point. Well - you missed the bottom but you are off the peak. If you are trying to get a rough idea, then look at oil.

If you need a house - then build one - and expect to pay more than resale in most places. I live in a relatively flat housing market - ie no bubble like the coastal areas and larger cities. But we are still down now - we were the last preserved markets but are finally down - just 5% if you look at overall numbers. But the truth is on higher end newer homes, there are still bargains to be found and builders losing their shirts.

We built and it cost us if we had to sell. Since we don't and we love our house, all is good.