Build Your Dream House Now

[badmomma]

With home values tumbling and the mortgage market still in crisis, you'd think that Billie and Rodney Wylde would shelve their plans to build their North Carolina dream home - at least until the market stabilizes.

Not a chance. The thirtysomethings are set to pour the foundation on a 2,100-square-foot farmhouse with a wraparound porch in East Bend, a few miles from where they currently live. Estimated construction cost: $140,000.


The couple hope to be able to move in as soon as November. "All the media talk about is this crisis," says Billie, an elementary school guidance counselor. "But it's actually a very good time to build."

She's right. Behind the dark clouds hanging over the housing market is a very compelling silver lining: The cost of building the home of your dreams is coming down. "If one or two years ago it cost you $300,000 to build a custom home, today it should cost tens of thousands of dollars less," says Jim Haughey, chief economist at Reed Construction Data.

Why? With new-home demand drying up, the price of some construction materials has started to sink like a poorly laid foundation. Framing lumber is now 18% cheaper than it was 18 months ago, while drywall is selling for 40% less.

read more here: http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate...ream-House-Now

[flippinout]

I can understand that one. Prices for drywall and plywood had really gone up and was a lot more expensive than it is now.

Other building materials will also be coming down. The blocks for the foundation should be a lot cheaper than they were and the foundation is one part of the house that can be quite expensive to build.

To build now does seem like the best time to do it because as the market straightens up, construction materials will be rising again.