You could do what my boss did and buy 80 acres of undeveloped real estate in Nevada for $200 an acre! Heck, even I could afford that!
Of course, the nearest electric line is 5 miles away, and it costs about $50,000/mile to add to it. Have fun with that.

I'd love to build my own house to spec some day, but it will be a loooong time before I can stomach the cost of building a new house. I guess I see it as being similar to buying a new car. Why pay the premium for a new house when I can buy a "used" house for less than half the cost?
For the record, the house Mere and I are buying is going to be insured for $150,000. That's the replacement cost of building a similar structure on the same lot if the existing house burns to the ground. In short, we're paying 38% of the cost of a new house. Sure, new houses have lots of amenities and are built to your specifications, but they also cost 2.5x as much as a used house in good shape.
-b0b
(...thinks land in Nevada is a great long-term investment.)