In addition to higher taxes, building a new house is almost always more expensive than buying an existing house. That being said, sometimes it's the only way to get what you want. In our case, we wanted a small, strong, very energy efficient house on rural acreage. That just doesn't exist around here. Any small houses out this way are likely to be run-down shacks that weren't very good when they were new. By building, we got the exact house we wanted. We were able to incorporate the latest in building technology and design it for aging-in-place.

Another reason we had for building is that I've always wanted to design and build my own house from scratch, but very few people fall into that category. Our little house would have been very expensive had I had it built by a builder, and we never could have recouped our investment.

I think you'll hear a theme in our stories.

We used to live in suburban Chicago, with very high taxes, in beautiful old homes which we loved, in a bedroom community on a commuter rail line, Lake Michigan beach and hot and cold running amenities in our village. We both grew up there, raised our kids there and were ready for a new adventure.

In the area we chose to move to we could not find a house that met our needs or that was worth putting in the time and effort to upgrade. My husband has been in residential construction for 25 years so it wasn't so much a matter of the money to renovate but the need to have a viable foundation and shell to work with and we weren't finding that on property that we wanted. We wanted acreage and privacy.

At this point we are still under construction so our taxes are only a guess but after meeting with our assessor, she gave me a range. We're looking at a tax decrease in the neighborhood of 75%. It's a huge lifestyle change but that's what we wanted. We'll have an efficient house and solar field and a design that is tailored to us in our new hometown.

We relocated out of state and rented for about 6 months while we decided what we wanted to do and where we wanted to buy a house. We found out that our daughter got into our top choice of schools and decided we wanted to stay in an area close to that school. There were literally no homes for sale in this area that even remotely met our criteria (the few that were on the market were too small/starter homes), so building in a new-ish subdivision nearby was really the only option if we wanted to stay in this particular area.

I absolutely did not want to live in an old house. It wasn't that I wanted everything new; I wanted everything from the foundation to insulation and comfort systems to be as modern as possible.

Our decision was also driven by the lack of homes that met our crieria and quite honestly that building has been a lifelong dream. We've enjoyed renovating and restoring our 1930 s home for the last 30+ years and I'd like to think we've given it new life for someone else, but it's time for something new and since we are moving 1200 miles away for our retirement home now is the time!

Thought we could do better for the same price. We did better, but it was not the same price.

Like mojo, but our house was built in 1902. We lived their for 40 yrs and renovated everything at least three times. It was a two story and when we retired 4 yrs ago, we started looking for a 1 story forever home. None met our criteria. We looked for about 2 yrs. We wanted something maybe 2 or 3 years old. So we decided to build and. Have exactly what we wanted.

Mrs. Architectrunnerguy and I have built three houses over the past 25 years and amazingly, we're still happily married!

I guess I like doing it as a reminder that it's a whole lot different when I'm spending my own money!

When we moved to SW FL 6 years ago (snowbird move), we bought and completely renovated a high rise condo overlooking the bay. Gorgeous views in a beautiful building with great people. However the board chose not to upgrade the windows to hurricane windows (we have hurricane shutters from when it was built in '82, we can't barbecue, they are building several high rises right around us, the dog can't stand all the activity where we are, the dog needs a yard and I miss gardening.

So we decided to look for a house near enough we could still walk to town but not in the hub of all the noise. We were even willing to go a bit further out if it meant getting the house we wanted. I LOVE old homes. My first house was a 1927 craftsman and my second home was an 1898 victorian/craftsman/colonial revival. But we're baby boomers and most of the houses we looked at that had the feel I was after either were too broken up, including stairs etc or they had come in years before and "modernized" it which meant removing anything that gave the house its character.

Then one day we went to see a new townhouse development walking distance to us and looked at their floor plans. Too modern for me, plus if you went to the bedroom floor and you had a guest who needed to use the elevator, the guest would need to walk through the master bedroom to get to the guest suite. (I kid you not! And while I normally say get an architect, you also have to vet them. This is one of the supposed "top" architectural firms in my city.)

Well as we were talking to the agent, I looked across their plot and noticed a plot behind that which was more residential and had a trailer on it. I asked what was going in there? The agent said, "Oh that's a different builder. He's building 19 custom homes" My ears perked up and we walked over to the trailer and 5 days later after checking out the builder's other houses, doing due diligence on his finances, and talking to many of his satisfied customers, we put down a completely refundable deposit. (We then continued to vet the builder and everything about him.) That was in early March 2015. We are finally in permitting and hope to break ground sometime in the next 2 months.

We've lived in new houses and old houses. After full-scale and small-scale renovations in every one of our houses, we decided to build so we could build what we wanted where we wanted and fill it with whatever we wanted to. We are serving as owner-builders. We wanted to be able to do as much of the work as possible and be as involved as we could. It's been a lot of work thus far but incredibly rewarding.

lack of available homes in the area we were moving to we needed a large lot for dh's shop and we wanted vistas that did not include houses all stacked up together we go what we wanted and yes it was expensive...

Short answer:

I've always wanted to build a house and have everything "just my way".

Long answer:

- What we want is not commonly available -- or, maybe I should say it this way: The things we want don't typically gang together in one house. We want a small house, but we want it to have nice finishes and certain "upgraded" features not typically found in "starter-size" houses; for example, a large pantry, a walk-in closet, and a pool. Conversely, the houses that have the finishes that we want, usually come with some items that we don't want -- like over sized kitchens, toilets shoved into closets and double sinks.

- We want to incorporate features that'll allow for aging in place, and that's not something that many houses include.

- We like old houses, but we are not 'specially handy ... so we don't want a house that'll be a constant project. Also, we want a house that's energy efficient.

- We own a farm that's been in my family more than 250 years, and we started with the idea that we'd build on that land ... but have since changed our minds; still, it was originally a part of our thought process.

This will be our third build. Our first build was in a neighborhood of homes where we lived 15 yrs and had all four of our kids. . I loved that neighborhood. We had a house fire and sold the house "as is".

Then we built this home on 5 acres in the country and we've been here 11 yrs. fairly large house. Lots to do outside (and inside).

We recently had the opportunity to buy the last lot in our old neighborhood. 0.5 acres. And we bought it. So, we will build there again... downsize in both ground and house size.

Even though we are still raising kids (last two are teens now), we are the age of most of our friends who are empty nesters...so our needs are a bit unusual.

really tired of all the driving into "town" so many times a day. Looking forward to being in a neighborhood again.

we also have an old lake cabin on a beautiful lake lot. Our long term plan is to raze that house and maybe build a smallish vacation home to share with our kids and grandkids. Maybe split our time between the two houses once the boys are grown. .

sounds ideal ilovered

I'm 62 years old, and our new house is the first insulated house I have lived in, including 27 years in CT! Our house is very tight and well-insulated, and it sure is a revelation. The comfort has to be experienced to be believed, and the utility bills are tiny.

Both of the homes I grew up in were custom builds by my parents (my dad physically built the first, only subbing out the foundation and plumbing, and I've really enjoyed following mushcreek's journey on these boards ;) ). So, I think I always had the notion that it is more desirable to live in a new house that was "yours" from day one.

After apartment living in the city, we did a custom build for our first house because I had always wanted to. Although stressful, I loved the process and loved our house.

We decided to move 5 years later due to location (commute from the country to city was not fun) and size of home (it was in a McMansion-esque neighborhood and just way too big for us).

While I wanted to build again, vacant land in our target location was rare and too expensive. So, we looked at houses for about a year. During that process I realized just how picky I am and that I wouldn't be happy with anything that wasn't exactly how I would have done it. Like exactly how I would have done it. I thought this would be ok because the houses in our budget were in need of major renovations anyways. Fast forward.... we ended up tearing down a house we planned to renovate and building new. We have been moved in for 6 months and I don't think a day has gone by where my husband or I haven't said how much we love our house. I am so glad that we had the opportunity to custom build a second time.

BUT - - the route we chose (both times) was definitely more expensive than buying an existing house. A LOT more expensive.

Other than wanting things to be "just my way" I think these traits lend themselves to being a better fit for a custom build:

-Ability to make decisions and stick with them.

-Time. Time to visit the house and check progress (we went every single day); time to research and think about items that you will need to make decisions on; time to meet with your builder; time to go to showrooms/suppliers/etc to pick things out; etc.

-Money. A custom home is expensive and a contingency fund is a must.

-Ability to communicate your thoughts, ideas and vision clearly. Your builder has to understand what you want in order to make it happen for you.

-Either similar vision for your house as your spouse, having different things that are important, or ability to agree to disagree. My husband trusts my design choices without question. I really don't know what I would have done if he didn't. I let him have a massive garage that I'm sure the gw'ers would throw up all over if I posted our plans. Building a house is stressful enough without arguing with your spouse on top of it.

-And regarding a vision, having one is important too. And the ability to picture how things will look once ideas are implemented. Changes to plans "because I didn't realize that's how it would look" are very expensive.

We chose to build because we couldn't find a single kitchen we liked in existing homes in terms of layout, and also because we couldn't find a home with a layout we really liked. We did weigh the cost of buying an existing home and remodeling certain things like the kitchen, baths, etc but in the end we didn't have the cash flow to do all of that right away and didn't want to live with certain things being outdated for years before being able to tackle them. Energy efficiency also played a role in us deciding to build, as well as knowing what exactly is behind the walls if/when an unexpected repair needs to happen. Our former home was built in 1905 and you just never knew what you'd run into when something broke or we wanted to remodel. We decided we didn't want to live in an old house.

Atypical needs. Extremely low inventory of available houses.

[Edited: ILoveRed, we have a multi-generational household.]

Oaktown...being really nosey here. May I ask what kind of atypical needs? ;-)

extremely low inventory of available houses here too.

Our previous home was perfectly adequate....it was a higher end production home in a great location. We lived there for 13 years, and loved it. But I am very design oriented and gradually we felt the urge to move from perfectly adequate to just perfect. We really wanted to have a master down, we wanted our kids (a boy & girl) to each have their own bath, I wanted 10' ceilings, 3 car garage, brick instead of siding, bigger yard, etc...and I wanted to be involved in every detail. I found Alley's list to be spot on. Honestly, I didn't find the process to be stressful. It was really almost fun for me. I had a huge notebook filled with samples, photos, paint chips. We lived 1/4 mi from the build, so were there frequently. I enjoyed working with the architect, interior designer, builder and coming up with creative ideas. My husband and I share a similar design aesthetic and he trusts my taste. Honestly, if I didn't love this house so much I wouldn't mind doing it all again! :)

we live in an area in california where it is the cheapest option for us. our decision process started by looking for homes we could leverage proposition 60 or 90. we would have to move too far from our area to find a home that qualified for equal to or less than the sale price of our existing home. then we analyzed the property tax implications of building. the dirt is the most valuable portion of our property, so we estimated that building new will double our current property taxes (since only the building is reassessed), whereas buying bigger in our area would quadruple them. right now we are detailing our finishes and fixtures and in the next few weeks we should be ready to submit for bids. exciting but also frightening!

My older son started attending a school that's 25 minutes from home when the traffic is good. He's been there for 4 years now and the traffic has gotten worse and worse so we decided that it was time to move closer to the school, especially since our younger son will go there in the fall. The other driving factor is the multi-generational nature of our family. My mother-in-law lives with us half the year and may eventually live with us full time. As she's gotten older it's become harder and harder for her to climb the stairs to her bedroom. We bought the house because we thought it would be easy to install a lift chair for her in the second stairwell but it turns out it would be way more difficult and way more expensive to do so than we expected.

We looked for already built homes near the school that had a first floor bedroom that wasn't a guest room but the ones we found had tiny bedrooms that were meant for overnight guests. They would just have room for the small bed, nightstands and a small dresser. Her room is her sanctuary so it also needs space for her treadmill and a comfy chair for watching TV. We looked at remodeling some existing homes but we'd either end up with a home layout that didn't make sense or would lose the backyard. We have young children so the backyard is used a lot.

Building a home will allow us to move closer to the school and my husband's work which will give us more family time and reduce our stress levels. It will also give my mother-in-law a bedroom downstairs which she needs for health reasons according to her doctor. Since we're already putting in a bedroom downstairs for her, my husband decided to incorporate a small kitchen for her. She always cooks her own meals since she's vegetarian and picky. Sharing a kitchen with her is very stressful for me so I appreciate my husband for deciding to do that.

The offerings in my area are the doldrums of home design. We have decided to be patient and save. We hope to find an architect who can create something really imaginative that we are happy to come home to everyday. For us, that's worth the added expense, time, and stress of building.

After DH retired, we no longer needed to live within an hour's commute to downtown Chicago. Lifelong suburbanites with family in the area, we decided to stay close, but not AS close. We wanted more privacy and less traffic, airplane noise, general congestion. We beat the weather problem by running off to our small condo on Maui in winter!

We found the long-established community we wanted to live in 16 miles north of where we were living. It is still on the lake, with RR and good highways into the city. It has good schools, some shopping with more nearby, and quality health services. However, after looking off and on for more than a year, we couldn't find an existing house to suit us.

We wanted a close-in location, one-level, an acre -- a small house with big rooms. It had to have charm. (One realtor said, "Oh, you want a *sweet* house!"

We eventually bought the first house I had looked at, primarily for location. We planned to remodel, but an assessor friend made a good argument for teardown/new build, and that's what we did.

We got a 'coveted street' and a sweet-looking house -- on an acre with a creek on one side and a conservancy behind us. We got a southern exposure for the rear of the house. We got some big rooms in only 2900 sq ft on one level. I hadn't expected how much I would love 'all new' and almost NO maintenance for the first 12 years. I've recovered from two hip replacements with ease due to a single step up into the house, no stairs, hardwood flooring and 36" wide doorways. A basement insulates the house -- no asthmatic problems.

To better 'fit' the neighborhood, we built an attic that can be expanded with dormers to create 6000 sq ft overall for which the lot is zoned. The appearance of a second story adds height and charm, but we don't heat it or pay taxes on it.

In the beginning stages of the design but we are building because the opportunity was too good to pass up. We live in South Florida and have been renting for the past 5 years. After spending about 6 months looking in nearby neighborhoods and not finding anything that we really liked, the house/lot directly across the street from us became available. We love our neighborhood, our street and especially the neighbors. I'm a little biased here but I think it's the best street in the village we live in. The house that's on the property is 60+ years old and hasn't been updated in almost as long. We are currently renting it out but will be knocking it down to build once we get our plans complete and permitting in order. It's going to be nice to be able to monitor the build very closely, from our front porch!

SteamMIA: sounds like you have the most ideal situation. good luck to you.