My contractor buddy says a regular old new build is $160-180/SF before any fancy finishes.  Then you have to buy the lot and bring in any utilities that aren’t standard sewer/water/electric from the curb.

I can certainly see the house buying timing haves and have nots.  If you bought before COvID and re-financed any remaining debt your monthly debt service is probably 1/3 to 40% of what buying the same house 5 years later would now cost.  If you can come up with the full 20% down and not need PMI, otherwise it is probably over 3x monthly debt service.