If housing prices are so high because of limited supply, why is it (usually) more expensive to build a home than to buy one?

Question

Shouldn’t it cost less? Is it to do with construction costs being high for unrelated reasons?

In: Economics

Answer 1

I’m sure it depends on the area, but building your own house is almost always going to be less money than buying one. However, building a house is extremely difficult, not just for contracting the construction, but finding land and getting ready to be built on, the design, endless amount of decision making, the details that are all so important, and the permits, testing, and inspections. So in essence, it’s all the blood, sweat, tears you avoid when buying AND the developers have the above-described process nailed down.

Source: husband and I built our home in a major US city about 2 years ago and was worth 3+ times the amount we spent on it at completion (with no landscaping).