how much to build a house?

$200 per square foot and up.

CC is right, you want to build in the sticks of NJ and PA, $200 for cookie cutter construction with Home Depot qualtiy material. Want better, you know, traveterine, custom mill work, marble baths, atrium, you need $300 a foot, neighborhood plays a big part, ritzy Westchester and CT, start at $300 for very basic, $400 for semi-custom, Custom in the Hamptons, start at $500, Brownstone East Side, try $700 for starters. Let me know the town, what your looking to build and I give you more exact numbers. I do high net worth personal insurance and look at replacment costs everyday in the tri-state area and beyond. Good Luck

I am in the process of building a new custom house on eastern Long Island, and Tallis' pricing is about right. A price per square foot is a difficult measure as the price per square foot theoretically should go down as the size goes up, but larger houses often have more bathrooms and higher end finishes that round up the pricing. For a truly custom house in the 3-5,000 square foot range with 4-5 baths in the nearby environs, you need to start with $350 sq ft for construction alone. But the problem with a custom house is the difficulty in saying "no" in the design process. Do you want 10 ' ceilings in the living area? 9' ceilings in the basement? Multiple fireplaces? Custom paneling or other woodwork? Etc., etc. Each of these could add $75K to the price. Even among quality windows the price could be double or triple from a very expensive starting point. Do you want a Christopher Peacock kitchen ($200K), a locally made custom kitchen ($75-100K) or a Kraftmaid ($30-50K)?

Another problem is you can't stop there. Throw in a detached garage ($50-75K), bluestone patios ($50K), pool ($75-100K), landscaping ($150K), cobblestone driveway ($70K), etc.

There are also LOTS of hidden costs in building a house. I know someone who built a house on a sloping lot and they had to spend over $50k just on a retaining wall.