For the most part, building materials have stayed about the same price for about ten years. Sheetrock has almost tripled in price, but it was so cheap before that it makes very little difference in the overall price of the home.

The cost of labor has gotten ridiculously out of control, not the price of materials. I guess that means that it's a good time to build your own home if you're planning on doing the labor yourself.

It's always been a good time to build if you're doing your own work. A bad economy has little to do with homeowners who gain loads of equity by doing their own work.

So go ahead and build. As a matter of fact, most building products are becoming more reasonable every day. Retailers are having to sell products for less to remain competitive.

There are many bargains to be had as the building boom has settled into outright recession. As far as the cost of materials, I can only think of one item that is more expensive than it was five years ago. That is sheet rock. A lot of that has to do with the Chinese drywall lawsuits which caused a huge demand for locally-made sheet rock in the USA.

Most everything else is around twenty percent less than it was five years ago. That is good for owner/builders.

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