Hacker News Reader

How about building places? My grandfather built his own house. The Zoning system restricts where and how houses can be built. Open up more land and incentivize people to build - maybe eliminate capital gains on first home construction for first time home buyers. You would have a lot more people who gain experience building homes and thus a lot more home building happening as they may continue after the first one.

View on HN

Lots of people can't change a light bulb much less build a home. Most of the cost of building one is labor - the underlying materials are actually pretty cheap. I've seen home kits for as low as $8k that includes the lumber, trusses, cabinets, siding, etc.

I’m not doubting you - I just don’t think I’m looking in the right places. But where have you seen these home kits ?

I say this having just built cabinets, an 8x12 shed, and a few other things where the lumber alone… for example, the subfloor for a room I redid the flooring in was $400 alone. But I may be buying things the wrong way and I would love to find a better way!

Maybe 15 years ago, not currently unless you’re talking about building a 700 sq ft tiny home

Birth rates dropping means we may just end up wasting energy and materials which we can’t really afford to do given environment

Reply on news.ycombinator.com