> Really the most concerning aspect is that the cost to build new housing has drastically gone up.

Any idea why? This is a life plan for my wife and I, we're currently looking for the right spot of land (~10 acres) and then we hope to start building in ~5 years after significant saving and planning.

We're in the initial stages of planning out our floor plan/etc, and costs are high, but we haven't really noticed a huge difference between building and buying. .. but i suppose we also aren't far enough long that we're getting real price estimates either.