Dear pennyO, it seems that you are not in the building industry and have very little of real costings. getting to lock up stages is actually the cheapest part of the process the fitout is most expensive.
At the moment it is costing around $1200-1500 to build properly. you can get cheaper rate, but this has only basic allowances.
As to why it is $1500, a lot of tradesmen have taken advantage of the conditions and have been asking and getting what they ask for. The problem is they have been acustomed and now have commitments that require them to charge those rates.
So for a 'small' 150m2 house with double garage (at extra cost), you would be $210K plus land. And land aint free, building the roads, infrastructure cost approx $50K to $100k depending on the size of the block and this is with out the greenfield cost of land.
As to your ratios of earning to the price of house, I would put money on it that you and the majority here dont live in a 130m2, 3 bed, single bath, double colour bond garage at the back, which was the average sized house in the 70s. Yours would be inexcess of 200m2 (current average), 4 bed, ensuite, spa, top line apliances, built in, family room, outdoor entertainment area and double garage if not triple.
The problem with stats is that they are misleading when similar is not compared.
As many of will have seen, there already have been 40-50% drops from the 2005-07 peaks in areas which were way over inflated.
As to the construction costs of materials in the US, labour costs for production and construction are way cheaper than here as are materials. Dont see many mexician construction workers earning $100,000 plus and driving $60K utes in th eUS. In australia, everywhere.
