Average cost to build a house

[Joe Kalis]

I was Riding my bike today and noticed a bunch of plots of land for sale. Some we're big enough for 2-3 houses, and it just made me curious what the average cost per square foot is to build a house from ground up. Obviously it's going to vary by market and perhaps even by what type of market or swing in our economy, but I'm in the NW suburbs of Chicago (Wheeling) and just curious if there's a general rule of thumb to estimate how much it would cost to build a new house. Let me know!

[Karen Margrave]

@Joe Kalis That's a difficult question to answer, and you want to make sure that when reviewing the answers, everyone is talking about identical situations. What is included in the estimates? 

• Cost of lot
• Any costs associated with getting lot ready to build
• Availability of utilities (if not to the property, cost to install) 
• Design costs (actual design, engineering, etc.) Style greatly affects costs.
• Materials 
• Labor
• Permit fees (sometimes these are higher than materials)
• Financing costs

Everyone brings different experiences and skills to the table, each region of the country has their own influences on labor and materials costs, etc. Permit fees can vary widely. EXAMPLE: Some areas when you pay for electric hookups it includes the meter, others, it's just the fee for the privilege of hooking up to electric and you buy the meter seperately. 

The best thing to do is talk to "local" builders and developers.