alt Hacker News> New housing is simply more expensive
There is no natural reason for this to be the case. If anything, learning curves and economies of scale should result in new units costing less, not more, than ones built by artisans.
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supertrope • 07/31/2025
Baumol’s Cost Disease means construction labor cost rises faster than productivity. We’re allergic to prefab construction - banks and insurance companies block it. A lot of construction workers left the industry after 2007. Baby Boomers are retiring and told their kids to not get a blue collar job. New housing has to be ADA compliant. People expect to give each kid their own bedroom and have two car garage instead of one car or no garage at all. Recent immigration crackdowns and trade wars are the icing on the cake.
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You would think, but constructions seems amazingly resistant to this. construction-physics.com writes extensively and convincinly on this.
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/sketch-of-a-theory-of...