Post

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈
@maxdubler.com

The two hardest and most unforgiving facts in housing policy are that it actually costs a lot of money to build new homes and that the rents that poor people can afford are not enough to pay off the cost of construction.

Eli Friedmann @eligit.bsky.social

Although I do understand the frustration with the brutally high cost of housing, people tend to deemphasize the actual cost. of materials, maintenance (which goes on indefinitely), insurance etc. The want to think all of the cost is due to the greed of whoever owns the building.

Kenneth Trease
@kptrease.bsky.social

I might argue a fourth fact is that housing is not a natural resource. There is no natural limit on how much we can extract, and it doesn't damage anything to create more, despite how much we pretend otherwise. We can just make more.

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PVN2099
@pvn2099.bsky.social

There’s also the troublesome fact that the minute you finish building a house it starts doing its damnedest to crumble into dust on you without constant maintenance. That takes labor! Often the skilled labor of expensive trades, like electricians or plumbers.

Benson Flinn
@bensonflinn.bsky.social

and thats even before the other stuff we put in the houses after they are framed. i generally agree but we need to be careful about the framing i think. density foxes this anyways though. build up and we have to use less of everything

Kenneth Trease
@kptrease.bsky.social

A world in which timber, concrete or steel were the limiting factor in housing production would be a very different world. We can replace all of these, but if we don’t let ourselves build, it won’t matter.