I ask myself that question every day, but then it's followed by, "Is it worth it?"

Because even in this recession, I still couldn't ge the house and view I wanted without paying more. I agree when people say that it's not that you'll save money, it's that you'll "get what you want". I would propose, though, that it would cost more to "get what you want" if you bought it rather than built it.
Of course, when we first started, there was no recession. Since then, lot values in our area have dropped by 20% or more, but hey, that's what life throws you, and I can't complain about that. My husband and I think to ourselves that had we not been saving to build, our money would've been in the stock market, and we all know how THAT turned out for most people in 2007/2008! And ultimately, I'm fine with all of that because I'm not building for resale, I'm building to raise my kids in this house.

Our home was flooded and damaged by wind and storm surge in Hurricane Ike in the fall of 2008. It was more expensive to repair then to rebuild so we had the house demolished and are building a new home.

We were tired of renovating old homes, trying to make them fit our lifestyle while respecting the history of the home. It never quite worked out the way we wanted. No doubt we could buy more house for less than our cost to build but we are willing to pay to get a home that is custom designed and built for us. :-)

My parents gave us the land, which is in our ideal setting and we are very particular in what we want to pay for and not pay for in a house. It seemed like in order to get some things we wanted in an existing place we would have to pay for upgrades or features that we had no interest in or outright didn't want.

We lost our home to a wildfire back in 2007. We had completely gutted and nearly rebuilt the original house and were only in it about 6 months before the fire came. We are rebuilding on the same footprint with some updates. Both times we have been our own contractors so I sure have learned a lot!

I guess I really didn't answer your question. We have gutted our existing and rebuilding on the old footprint, but doubling our square footage (going up). We love our neighborhood and it was more cost effective to rebuild and get what we wanted than to buy.

We are finished building, but we chose to build because we've bought two other houses and found out that the previous owners weren't honest in their disclosures. You run a risk with your builders too, but at least you know what is under that carpet and paint and can pick a lot with good drainage.

This is a great thread and I am interested in everyone's individual reasons. For me, it was because i was interested in living in a particular neighborhood and the homes for sale in this particular area were not what we wanted. Either they were too large and too expensive or they did not fit our needs and desires. And in our area, the popular finishes are becoming outdated and extremely overused in my opinion (earthtone neutral colors, granite counter tops, heart of pine wood floors, oil rubbed bronze fixtures, boring tile in the bathrooms, antiqued cabinets in the kitchen etc..) So I decided to build what I wanted and what fit my lifestyle. It has been a very long and stressful process and I certainly didn't save any money by building but in the end I think its going to be 100% worth it. Great thread.

We moved into our new house in March of '09. We built because we had a "dream"! My dh and I worked and raised our family in the area where we were both born and raised. About 13 years before we retired we started buying property in another part of the state. We slowly, over the years, put in a well, built a shop with living quarters inside and electricity. When my dh retired in May of '08 we already had our house on the market for 2 months! We sold in July and moved to our property and into our shop. Then we started building our home and the rest is history, as they say. It wasn't the "cheapest" route to take but we saw our "dream" through to fruition!! Priceless!!

Well it started with new countertops and refinishing the floor. From there it just kinda got out of hand.

We built mainly so that we can get the floorplan we wanted. It's nothing that unusual but different enough form the norm that we couldn't find it in an existing house. We also wanted a contemporary country style and most new homes are more traditional.

We will be building after living in a home built in 1940. It's nice to see the changes of remodeling, but the cost is exhausting when you sit back and consider that even with the visual change the utilities remain high for a small home. Also, we'd like a basement and storage in practical places. We just aren't finding what we want in existing homes, both in terms of floor plans and finish. For us, it didn't make sense to buy a house and invest in changing it again. We'd rather start from scratch and invest each dollar where we want it to go, spluring and saving where it matters to us. Also, a new build is a way for us to mesh DH's love of new homes with my love of old style. We want to create a space that is small yet efficient, with more detail than we are finding in the standing new construction in our area.

These are interesting....so I hope more will share their reasons for building. Blessings go to those who HAD to build because of fire and floods.

It would have cost us 200k or more to buy equivalent house. I have done a ton of work myself, but even with the economy and house prices dropping, it has still been the right idea.

Because we live in a very rural area and houses like what we wanted very rarely, if ever, come on the market.

we're very picky. we never could find an existing house that felt special to us. more of the same, over and over. we renovated our first house and stayed for 12 years but after our kids came along we suddenly found ourselves short on space. even though the house had six bedrooms, it was 110 years old and had no family or play room. the basement was always wet and well, it was old.

we wanted our house our way and we felt thrilled to watch it evolve -although i'm done with romanticized version and quite honestly, can't wait to finish the damned thing already.

We built because we were in the mountains, very tiny community on 5-20 acres, but high fire area and very windy. Built for snow, which we had and had planned to stay forever. Medical issues came up, had to move to another state, took over 2 years to sell ( 2 bad Realtors) but person that bought it was very happy and did buy quite a bit of the furniture and we left lots of stuff, which they were very glad. Fire did burn within 10 feet of house, but because we used stucco/ had the eaves sealed, brush cut back, the house did not burn.

Because we have outgrown our first house (2 kids and being bit by the adoption bug that will lead to more) and we have both sworn that we will never, ever gut another house and remodel again - too frustrating, expensive, and a lot of unknowns with a house that is is 70 years old. After spending a year remodeling our home, we are determined to save and build our dream home on 100 acres of family land that we have recently been blessed to own...this home will be completely turn key with no sweat equity this time!

We built in order to get the style of house and the floorplan that we wanted in the neighborhood we wanted to live in. Yes, we could have bought a similarly-sized house, albeit of a completely different style and in a different neighborhood, for a lot less money. But there was absolutely nothing available anywhere in our region that was even close to the style and floorplan we wanted.

Gardenwebbers who have followed my saga over the past couple of years know that we wound up with an absolutely horrible and dishonest builder who we wound having to fire and file suit against. Then we took over GCing the rest of the build ourselves. It has been a heartbreaking journey. I WILL NEVER EVER EVER build again.

But, despite all the problems that my house has - and despite the fact that it is still not finished although we have been living in it since April and doing much of the remaining work oureselves on weekends - it looks beautiful and is still much closer to being my "dream house" than anything on the market. I love it and I love my new neighborhood.

But, if anything ever happens to this house so that it has to be "rebuilt" I'm just gonna give up, buy a tent, and go camp out in the woods somewhere till I'm either old enough for the old folk's home or finish going looney enough to be packed off to an asylum! I could NOT possibly survive building again.

We are building because we own a 3 acre beautiful parcel of land close-in to the city. We have a large family and for us, it is important for our kids to play outside & develop an appreciation for their natural surroundings. Unfortunately in our "well" regulated cities here in the Portland Metro area, new large homes are built on tiny 5,000 sq foot lots...it's pathetic. We are doing a custom build because we couldn't find a plan that suited our needs. We are wrapping up framing and the roof is going on next week! WHOO HOO!!!

Bevangel~~

First, I am so sorry that you had so many problems with your new build...I feel your pain....this house took nearly 3 years to get completed.

But I had to chuckle when I read your post that you would NEVER EVER EVER build again....and that is exactly what I said (no I shouted it) at that time.

Now it is 10 years later, health failing, economy tanked and what are we talking about doing again?...yes, BUILDING!! but I don't know if I will survive it again either.

Enjoy that house, but never say "never"!

We had remodeled a kitchen that was great. We needed to move b/c neighborhood. The existing homes in new neighborhood didn't have kitchens that compared to our remodel. To get our kitchen back would have cost a lot since we would have to spend $200k more than we wanted. The houses were too new to rip out the kitchens and often times the kitchens were too small for what we wanted.

It wasn't the only reason, but it was a major one. I also wanted to build an energy efficient house, I wanted to wire things behind walls, I wanted a good size lot and those are rare around here (again at our price point). So I am agreeing with juniork at least in our situation.

In the year since we built, our local market has fallen some more. But the same truths still apply....

My husband told me that he was willing to move once, so I was very, very careful as I looked for a house. I looked for 5 years, and saw some houses I liked, but there was always something that wasn't quite what I wanted. Finally, I found a house that had 95% of the requirements on my list, and I still wasn't happy with it - the dining room and living rooms were too small, none of the rooms had windows on two sides, I suspected that the people who built the house cut some important corners and there were issues in water draining away from the house.

So, after that, I turned my attention to looking for a lot, and found the ideal lot (within my budget) within a month.

I know that I could get a real 'deal' right now in an already built house. But, I also feel that I am getting some great values in building now - the best crews are available, we are getting good prices on labor and material, and I feel that we got a great price on our land. We were also able to assemble a team - architect, designer, and builder - who might not have all been available at the same time in years past. Yes, we could have purchased a house for less than what we are paying to build, but this is a house we plan on being in for a long, long time - and the entire process has been a joy for me, even the thousands of decisions and the resolving the issues that come up on a day to day basis. Building a house is possibly the most interesting 'job' I have ever had!

Our 'starter' home could well have lasted us forever -- a brick ranch on a quarter acre in a fine suburb 15 miles north of Chicago. When my DH retired, we no longer needed to be a maximum one-hour door-to-door commute to the city. We also wanted more privacy, less road and aircraft traffic, and a more upscale house -- not large, but with spacious rooms and a nicer finish.

We identified the town, 30 miles north of the city. We decided which neighborhood we loved. But, we couldn't find a house that 'fit'. The smaller ones were not that different from our original house. Newer ones with large rooms and nice finishes were all two to three times too large.

After looking for two years, we bought one of the similar-to-ours houses -- for it's lot and location. We planned to remodel. One of our new neighbors, an appraiser, pointed out that we'd be money and comfort ahead tearing down and building new. He was certainly right. Since we built, several other 1950's ranches have been replaced by new homes, most much larger than ours.

We never set out to build, but are glad we did, and VERY glad we did it ten years ago. I would not be building anything today, while building costs far outstrip the cost of existing houses -- even *new* existing houses.

Right now our home is still worth somewhat more than we have in it, but I expect the value will fall more before there's any meaningful recovery. Right now our rather deep-pockets town has a several-years-long inventory of million-plus houses on the market; many are foreclosures and short sales. So far, our immediate neighbors are OK, but a builder's teardown/spec house a few doors from us sold recently after being on the market for two years. He got half his asking price. This is not a good market to sell houses, not even a beautiful *new* home in an established neighborhood.

We are (going to) build a new home, because we wanted a very specific location, and a very specific house. Designing and building a house has been a life-long dream of mine. We bought property after years of looking, and have been designing and re-designing our little empty nest for 4 years now.

I also want a house with the latest in energy efficiency and construction techniques. Our needs are simple, and we want a small, old-fashioned cottage in an efficient package. I know it's not cost-efficient, and our design may have re-sale issues, but it's designed for us, not someone else. We won't have a mortgage, so it will be a cheap place to live.

We wanted more land, and less house. In the house, since we're DINKs & 50, we wanted some of the amenities of larger homes without the excess square footage. Building was the only way to get this in our area.

Have moved 15 times during our 32 years of marriage which gave us a lot of opportunity to figure out what liked and didn't like We planned our retirement house during the last few years and just finished a log house on property we bought a couple of years ago. We wanted to downsize but also get exactly what we wanted so found a builder we were comfortable with and built this year. We can't wait to get to the new place full time.

We wanted land and room to build on if needed for our mothers(both alone now). Being a family of 7, we needed a larger house and had trouble finding all those things at a price we could afford. Due to the downturn, we were able to buy a 5 acre piece of land for more than 1/2 the price it was selling for when we began looking 3 years ago and build the size house we wanted. We are very pleased with our decision!

We thought we had built our last owner/builder home,downsized and put in extra thought to make this home our "dying home."

Then our son moved back home.

Our subdivision was cut up many years ago with tiny lots. The POA is very strict about having a lot of room around the house regardless of the small lots. We built our house with no wasted space that could have become a stairway, so we can't build up. And we certainly can't addd on, not with the restrictions of lot size and the POA rules.

So we are headed out from town. Just found two lots, one for DD (who has her own reasons for wanting room and space--the DGS's)and one for us and our DS. They are 3 acres, and up to now 1/3 acre is as large as we've had. We will build DD's house and sell it to her at cost. Then we'll build our house and it will have a floor for the son.

Building instead of buying? My DH can do so much himself that we have always been able to build much more than we can buy. After years in education, he has come to place a low value on his labor--nil. Maybe it's coincidence.

Our plan hinges on three home sales....so it could take a while to begin. Everyone is patient, except our son.

Lots of reasons!
Our current next-door neighbor is an arse and even on 2 acres of land, he's right on top of us so there's no privacy. We found 9 beautiful acres (1/2 field, 1/2 wooded with pond access). We have grown tired of walking up and down stairs. We thought we would get a "bargain" with home building at a standstill where we live. We thought it wouldn't be that hard to sell our current home (which, thankfully, we own because it hasn't sold yet.) We had dreams of building a cute little Craftsman and that's what we're doing, except it's not little anymore. I can't wait for DH and I to grow old together in this house! We should be in by Christmas!

swhite, would love to see pictures! We're building a craftsman-style too, except not single level.
hddana, what a story! Good luck to your family, and it many ways, it is nice to have your family so close by! I hear you on the education thing...good for your husband for being an educator!

Juniork--Ours was supposed to be a one-level with a bonus room above the garage. We now have a full walk-out basement and LOTS of other space upstairs, that was never supposed to be there, but our builder thought it was a shame to let it go to waste so he's finishing that bonus room, plus another room and a loft area, which we've opened up to the family room down below. Without the basement, it's probably 3500 square feet--stupid, I know, especially since we have one leaving for college in 3 years and the other one 3 years after that! Here's a link to pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: Craftsman construction