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Comment by alexvomwald | Hacker News Reader

There has been a lot of discussion about 3D-printed homes over the last 3 years with multiple companies getting funding.

One of the biggest home builders in the US announced a 100 home community in Austin and homes are expected to be available for sale soon.

What are your guys thoughts? Do you think a 3D-printed home would be a good investment?

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The bottleneck in home building has never been the building of the home itself, but rather the permits and zoning regulations imposed by NIMBY cities.

The problem is more appraisers and banks that don’t know what to do with a lot of construction outside some norm, so they won’t know how to value and won’t know how to write loans.

And under circumstances of any substantial demand for their services, they don’t have incentives to change — they make more spending a predictable amount of time on activity they know how to collect fees for.

You could take all the city zoning/codes/ordinances away today, every last one, and you’d still have this problem (and lose whatever regulatory benefits might come with them).

at least for now and foreseeable future, there is a bottleneck right of labor.

If it slashes housing prices substantially, then yes. People want inexpensive houses. I'm not really into the idea of buying a house, but I would seriously consider buying one of these if they were inexpensive enough.

Only If they are quick to build, cheaper to buyer and long lasting...

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