Thank you all. I was looking more for specific construction costs but RE prices per sq.ft. are informative as well.
And Mike, thanks a lot. I'll definitely get with you when I get back there, should be soon. You're not kidding about location. The guys who are making big $$ are in the really high end and know what they are doing. I know a guy out here in LA who bought a tear-down in an incredible location a few years ago. It's in the "bird streets" above Sunset, for anyone who knows LA. He paid something like 2.2M for the property, it actually sat on the market for a while because it's an expensive proposition to build there. It's on a bluff on the end of a long private driveway.
The last I heard, he hadn't started yet but the plan was to spend around $4M demolishing the place and building an amazing modern house w infinity pool, etc. He would then sell it for $12M, (a lot more now because prices have skyrocketed since he bought it), and even I can do the math on that one.
The trick is doing it on a budget and scale that a little guy like me can swing.