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Comment by notch898a | Hacker News Reader

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I'd be interested to know more about the direct correlation between increased cost of housing due to enforcing building codes and homelesness. Can you share links to studies or articles about that? Thanks.

Here's an example

https://www.ktnv.com/13-investigates/officials-in-nevada-dem...

You're welcome!

> The parcel is zoned for a single-family home.

That seems to be about zoning, not building codes.

It's a bit of both. The article specifically mentions the CODE specifies minimum sq ft. You could still put a tiny "house" down if that house had met code. The code is the reason why it was unworkable even for a single unit on a plot.

(and in any case, since the topic was code enforcement, article states "North Las Vegas Code enforcement took action" )

I think that's more of a problem with zoning codes and environmental impact regulations than building codes.

There are a lot of things driving up housing costs. Some of those are also driving wage disparity.

What are the “a lot of things?” Sure, construction standards are a bit higher but the technology is also much better and faster to build with.

Speculation and landowner greed are the primary drivers of rising housing costs (with restrictive zoning being an consequence of the first two).

The technology where I am is largely still 2x4 pieces of wood for framing, with other tree-based materials for most of the rest of it, for one-story buildings. I've heard other places actually use more advanced technology for their materials but I don't see that changing how we build buildings where I am.

Do they use nail guns?

Ah yes, a tool that dates back to 1950. I'll fully admit that modern electric versions with quick charge lithium ion batteries are convenient as shit compared to the air compressor powered versions of yore, but you can't hold up a tool that dates back 70 years as some sort of pinnacle of modern technology.

My point is more generally that construction is full of innovation that does indeed dramatically speed up the process, even if the fundamental materials/techniques are the same (which in many cases, they’re not).

>> Speculation and landowner greed are the primary drivers of rising housing costs

No, lower interest rates are the primary driver.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ASPUS

Doesn’t seem like the 20% fed funds rate in 1980 did much.

Obviously low rates didn’t cushion the city -> suburb housing crunch during COVID, but COVID isn’t the only time housing prices have gone up. They seem only to go up.

Land prices track exactly to the productivity of the region. Productivity, as a general rule, goes up due to technology, more people yielding more specialization, more natural resources being discovered etc.

Wherever a tech company puts a new office sees skyrocketing local economic productivity and accordingly sees skyrocketing rent prices. That’s not because Mother Earth is charging more per square foot of space, it’s because landowners are.

A lot of people in Turkey became homeless (and dead) partially because of lax building procedures driving the cost down.

Wow.

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