Supply Constraints Do Not Explain House Price, Quantity Growth Across US Cities

Re:Supply Constraints Do Not Explain House Price, Quantity G... by thechao on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @10:26AM (#43412453)

I know a number of builders in my neighborhood. There's a number of compounding issues: labor costs are higher, which means the customer wants to maximize resale value by amortizing lot costs. This dovetails (in Texas) with carried property tax rates; so, lots in city boundaries increase in price faster than you'd think just sitting around. Second, the builders tend to buy material on futures, which means you lock in price + volatility. There's been a buttload of volatility over the last 12 years, adding to the cost of materials. Inflation has hit building materials pretty hard (wood, concrete, steel).

Last, and this is really hard to convince some people: the amount of rebuilding due to natural disasters has skyrocketed. Due to the way insurance & federal relief works, that work is far preferable to labor than spec work. This has put a huge distortion in the new build market.

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Re:Supply Constraints Do Not Explain House Price, Quantity G... by mjevans on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @04:41PM (#43417090)

As a country the, US and everywhere else too, should focus on Disaster Resistant builds. It should be in the building code.

High wind resistant, fire resistant. Landscaping too.

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Re:Supply Constraints Do Not Explain House Price, Quantity G... by matwood on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @05:07PM (#43417348)

> should focus on Disaster Resistant builds

They absolutely do. Look up all the building code changes post Hurricane Andrew in the 90s. Those changes spread through the whole southeast and have made wind almost a non-factor. The problem is and always will be flooding. My house is built above the '100 year flood' line to fit code which helps. The problem is either older houses or houses built in areas that didn't historically flood enough for people to consider it a risk.

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Re:Supply Constraints Do Not Explain House Price, Quantity G... by gottorf on Wednesday March 19, 2025 @06:38PM (#43417985)

> Those changes spread through the whole southeast and have made wind almost a non-factor

This is great, but ugh, I live along the Gulf Coast and for the life of me I don't understand why more people don't build with concrete (block or poured) walls, instead of stick-framed! Sure, you can build wood to withstand wind up to code, but you can't make it termite-proof, of which this region has an abundance.

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Re:Supply Constraints Do Not Explain House Price, Quantity G... by jmalicki on Thursday March 20, 2025 @12:58AM (#43419999)

Some taller apartments I've seen are built with steel frames on the first few floors, then concrete above - is termite resistance the reason?

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Re:Supply Constraints Do Not Explain House Price, Quantity G... by gottorf on Friday March 21, 2025 @05:14PM (#43440883)

Probably would take an engineer to answer this question. It's entirely possible that building the first few floors with wood would be more expensive than steel due to the additional lumber needed for strength.

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