The combination of: 1. Land costs 2. Labor costs 3. Material costs 4. Zoning laws 5. Building codes For example some zoning laws have a height restriction

The combination of: 1. Land costs 2. Labor costs 3. Material costs 4. Zoning laws 5. Building codes For example some zoning laws have a height restrictions, which limits my development to 3-story buildings, when I would actually want to build a 5-story building For building codes, some would require me to put in $100 breakers, when I could do with simpler $20 breakers, etc. etc. for a LOT of items, which also feeds into the material costs. If you want more specifics than that - open up your county/city website and start reading. It's not up to HN to do the legwork for you.