Disclaimer: Anything I say in this post is conjecture. I am younger and completely ignorant in the area of real estate, so please enlighten me rather than berate me.
In the current market, what is the economic feasibility of having a house built from scratch rather than buying a similar pre-existing one? Would there be any cost advantage of one over the other, or is it a wash (e.g. the cost of building a house will fluctuate to match the cost of buying one)? Can you get a mortgage on a house you want to build or must the house already exist?
Another (related) question I have: How correlated is a properties' value with the original cost of that properties creation (creation including the cost of labor, materials, and land)? For example, a newly-built house cost 400k pre-bust and dropped in value to ~250k post-bust. what would you conjecture the actual cost of that house's creation? Have the prices of houses dropped below their actual cost of production, or was the price of real estate so overvalued that such a drastic reduction was still above the cost of producing that house (e.g. the land itself was initially overvalued, not the house)?
If anything needs clarified, please let me know. :)
Edit: I ask, as I'm currently leasing. I'm not in any position to transition to home ownership anytime soon, but if it is economically feasible to build your own home, doing so when transitioning from renting seems like the best time.