Well ADD I think you are totally wrong. To even put replacement cost on your insurance is nothing but apples and oranges. First off most insurance company's over insure. Every home I have ever bought they wanted to insure it for 20 percent more than I paid. Second I have been in all the trades for 40 plus years. Everyone in my family was in the treads and its all I know. I have built myself several of my own homes and remodeled more. I was in Floorcovering as a trade in my last years and grew up helping my father in plumbing and heating. He was a master. I also would get off the school bus at my uncles building sites and help him with electrical and when younger I started by scrapping out and helping hang drywall. If you have never been in a hall that had land donated you were not much of a JW.
I know not all were but more than not that I have been around had land donated. Yes building materials are not cheap but when you buy in bulk and get the discounts that society gets, and in the cases of the several halls I was around that were built they have builders who get their discount and pass it on to the cult. In the average home of 2000 sf the actual cost of rough in materials would be around 15000 dollars. All in materials about 65k tops unless you are buying some exotic things. The labor is always more than materials on most items. Not all but most. when you are paying 20 plus an hour to the avg work man or more and you also have the cut going to the general of each trade.
Most owners don't do their own work, They have tradesman do it or at least work with them. In the mid west you can buy a 1500sf home new on land for 135k. So half a million is crazy money. And it is a lie. Also in a project you call a tradesman they add at the very least 10 percent to the cost of the material. They never pass it on. And that is very low, in my case we would add 50 percent to the cost of flooring. And we were low. Some builders would go cost plus ten and that was a scam. They inflated material added hours ect and then collected ten percent on top. It most times cost more than a bid job.
Homes new built should not really run all that much more than a comparable existing home. Unless you live in California or NY areas, Take a look at what you can buy with half a million in your area. Usually a 10 times more exotic and larger home than some 2 or three thousand sf KH. No add in that they did not pay labor and got a cut rate on material and you can look at three quarters of a million dollar homes to compare. Its an out and out lie.
I also know the avg ratios of two to one on rough in and three to one on mechanical, but what is never taken into account is the mark up on material. What I am referring to is the sometimes 50 percent or more markup on material. If you take this in to account on the KH builds and the discount they get when they are either given material or at a discount then its closer to one to one sometimes less. The point is no matter what half a million or a quarter of a million is a lie when it comes to building what amounts to a 3000sf open roof system with a couple of bathroom stalls in it.