From speaking with several GC’s, I think you can do $200-250/ft and get a very nice home. I will PM you the name of a contractor I got here from a fellow Pigg. This guy won “builder of the year” for a 12,000 sq ft home in Carlsbad that is decked out to the nines and was done under $200/ft.

One thing to keep in mind is $/ft doesn’t scale linearly. Smaller houses will be more because you still have a kitchen, garage, foundation, water heater, permits, etc. You get big economy of scale at 4500 ft+. At 3000 ft I would expect around $250/ft. But this GC just built an unbelievable 7000 ft estate in Poway for $185/ft.