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Comment by thepasswordis | Hacker News Reader

I’m saying build them. 800 square foot slab on grade 2 bedroom homes with block construction just like we did in the 1940s.

You absolutely could build these for $100k/ea at scale.

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Even mobile homes cost more than that: "the average sale price of a new manufactured home was $111,900 in November 2021" [1] and that's not even California specific.

[1] https://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/articles/how-much-...

Average cost per square foot (low end) is $130 in Tennessee[1].

130*800 is: $104k.

[1]: https://innovativebuildingmaterials.com/how-much-does-it-cos...

soo... there are about 70k homeless people in L.A. right now. How do you suggest we airlift them to Tennessee?

The value of the structure rounds to $0 when compared to the cost of the land it's sitting on.

I don't understand people who paint the house and plant flowers outside before selling. The buyers aren't looking at that. They just want to see the dimensions of the lot and then bid a few hundred grand over asking. Once the paperwork is squared away, one morning an excavator and a dump truck will pull onto the beautiful manicured lawn and by late that afternoon the site will be an empty lot. A few months later the new McMansion on the site will be sold for a significant markup. On the order of 1-2 million dollars more than it sold for earlier in the year.

This is the real estate reality in California because people actually want to live here.

Not legally you can't, not in California. Maybe in Somalia.

The comparison is with blowing up hundreds of tons of fuel below and around a capsule filled with people, like half a dozen times. Give them a little flexibility on building codes. NASA rockets explode and catch fire due to weather and normal flight.

Is someone giving away land for free? Because in places where people want to live, the land costs more than the house.

Yes: https://www.wideopencountry.com/free-land-in-the-us/amp/

including all the fringe costs.. power lines, sewage, roads, schools etc etc?

because the 13B includes all that.

Would you want to live in that? Because I wouldn't, nor would I want to live anywhere near a development like that.

I CURRENTLY live in that. Holy shit what an unbelievably insulting comment.

“Would you really live in that?!?!!” Uh, yeah? Because I already do? And love my house? And maybe that’s why I’m suggesting that specific style of house as a solution? Because I currently live in one with the rest of my family.

And before you start thinking “oh poor him”. I can almost guarantee you that I make more money than 99% of the people posting here.

Could you believe the poor sap who might live in a place like this?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/935-E-56th-St-Austin-TX-7...

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4507-Depew-Ave-Austin-TX-...

I agree with everything you’re saying here. But I would not want to be the poor sap that paid $625k to live in a place like that. Those prices are insane.

Completely agree these prices are nuts. Most of it is location though. Even still: lots of these places were selling for 100-200k 5 years ago.

Those are nice except for the price. It's not the size, it's the sprawling developments with thousands of identical cookie cutter houses that I was talking about. I personally wouldn't want to live in one or near one.

I was thinking this: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/levittown-new-york

The people moving into those houses wanted to. You don’t want to.

Do you think living in a suburb is better or worse than living in a ditch or under a bridge?

Lots of Europeans live in places that small and are very happy with them.

I'm talking about building these "at-scale" which results in massive developments of soulless cookie cutter suburbs. There is nothing wrong with the house by itself- quite the contrary. People shouldn't buy more than they need.

See: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/levittown-new-york

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