Build or buy? It has no answer. There are too many different factors. Are you hiring a general contractor, subbing out or truly building yourself? Does your city/county process permits and variances in a timely manner? Do they charge you tons of money for those services? Do they make you carry out extensive environmental surveys and impact reports? Are you paying in cash or borrowing? Do you want every detail to be perfect? Do you want high performance thermal envelopes and low air leakage? Do you want to have special certifications like passive house? How long are you willing to dedicate to the process of completing the project?

There is no correct way to build. There are many different methods, standards and philosophies and none of it is backed up with very much evidence because of the culture of the building trade and how old it is. Your own personal judgement and research will determine how everything is done down to the type and placement of fasteners. The only way for you to understand if it’s worth it is for you to learn everything about it, put it in the context of your situation and have your own opinion.

What I will say is that almost every house in the United States is built poorly. The common standard practices are very backwards and prone to failure. I would never buy an expensive house unless most of the value was in the land.

>What I will say is that almost every house in the United States is built poorly

I would love more details on why this is (certainly I'd expect poor build quality in certain housing boom areas in Florida, but not everywhere).

Also I've always thought reinforced concrete was the way to go, over wood, if I lived anywhere near hurricanes. I also thought this might mitigate against high wood prices recently. Apparently it doesn't though - still need molds made of wood to hold the concrete in place while it dries and those are generally thrown away after.