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A comment on Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s mobility is stalling. Parent comment

Re:Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s... by toomuchtodo on Thursday August 14, 2025 @11:13PM (#44908240)
I don’t think we’re ever going to build houses again at the rate we did before the 2008 GFC. A substantial portion of people who work in construction are undocumented (and will be targeted for deportation by this admin for the remains of their term), zoning remains a challenge, cost of materials continues to inflate. How many years would it take to get back up to speed? 5? 10? What does the economy look like then? Will enough young folks go into the necessary trades to meet the demand for this labor? We might keep building along at the anemic pace of today, but I argue we’ll never build again at the rate we did pre GFC.

https://eyeonhousing.org/2020/01/a-decade-of-home-building-t...

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/its-the-land-stupid-how-t...

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Re:Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s... by klooney on Thursday August 14, 2025 @11:59PM (#44908473)
Supply and demand for labor will work itself out- prices will go up, companies will invest in efficiency, etc. People just need time to figure out the details, and the legal right to do the job.
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Re:Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s... by klipklop on Friday August 15, 2025 @01:36AM (#44908944)
Can people wait multiple decades for this to sort out? People without housing they can afford need it immediately.

There are going to be losers in this. No avoiding it.

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Re:Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s... by toomuchtodo on Friday August 15, 2025 @09:44AM (#44912340)
Indeed, that's my thesis, I appreciate you making it crystal clear. The pipeline has failed, and if there is a will to fix it, it will take time. Until it's sorted, year after year, there will be folks who go without affordable housing. There are, as you said, going to be losers from this policy failure.
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Re:Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s... by hshdhdhj4444 on Friday August 15, 2025 @05:34AM (#44910293)
How does supply/demand work itself out when an exogenous force is rapidly contracting the supply?

Humans take time to be produced.

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Re:Nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs, America’s... by willis936 on Friday August 15, 2025 @07:11AM (#44910893)
We don't build slow because the cost of labor or raw materials have gone up. In fact productivity and efficiency has gone up across the board in the past century. We build slower because there is a will to build slower. We let local people kill high speed rail, high voltage DC, and, above all, housing. You know how we built rails in the 1800s and highways in the 1900s? We didn't give a shit when someone said "no". That's what's changed.
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