answer:Actually, I have a cousin who owns a company which does rehabs. They do have a cabinet maker. They do use real tile (that they cut on-site to exact dimensions). They do use solid wood baseboard when they’re doing solid wood floors (as opposed to Pergo – but Pergo is considered longer lasting. They also do a lot of Bamboo flooring as it’s more eco-friendly.) They try to use recovered materials when possible. His work is exquisite and they don’t cut corners. He rehabbed a house that he planned to sell and then instead his mom bought it. Not your typical “flip” type of operation. That said, in our neighborhood we’ve seen 3 recent “flips” of homes that were repo’d and then sold at auction. Looks like the same group bought them all and in each case it took less than 3 weeks to flip them and put them on the market. They put in crappy windows, no repairs to roofs…and at least one of them I heard had no update to the mechanicals (furnace and water heater). Your question is a tricky one because there are actually multiple factors in costs to houses: Experience level of the contractors and crew (our across the street neighbor is considered to be the best at drywall/taping in a large geographic area—but you can be sure his labor doesn’t come cheap)..and permits and various inspections. These all differ by location. It’s the big corporate home development companies (Lennar, M/I Homes, Pulte, Highland) that pre-fab and throw new homes up as fast as possible. That’s why buying into a development can be “cheaper”—but can also mean cheaper materials. Too many factors. Permits, land costs (lot cost), inspections, labor, fuel cost changes, lumber prices are always fluctuating and whether they have a cookie cutter home floor plan (no additional fee for architect / blueprint)..all of these impact the house price. Sure materials cost a cost difference – for example, tile vs. carpet or wood floor vs. carpet… but I labor and materials is only a piece of the equation.