Hehe, new construction is great but you pay for stuff you otherwise wouldn't. I prefer to let others handle the hassles of upgrades. The house I just bought is 2 years old.
(Did you look into "real" landscaping costs yet?
)
Also, have you checked out what your property taxes are? The house we bought we pay about $13k/year in taxes. New construction in the price range would have been ~$30k/year