US construction industry productivity is lower than in 1970

Years ago I lived in Northern England, in a town at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. The street was a long series of exactly carbon copy houses - each one exactly the same as the next, sharing one wall each all the way down the hill - one hundred houses. And when someone sold their house, everyone else knew how much their house had gone up or down in value.

Today I live in a suburban “new build” where every house is different - bedrooms on this floor or that, facing this way or that, a through living room, a utility room here or a larger kitchen there.

Every house is a unique snowflake and no-one knows what the price “should” be.

And try learning the lessons of productivity when every house is a unique snowflake - factories don’t do that for the reasons we expect.

If we want cheap housing we know how - it’s apartments 7-10 stories high, in dense urban environments. It can be nice but it’s not McMansions

In 1970, you could have 16 year olds swinging hammers and 12 year doing fetch and carry on a construction site. Almost everywhere one built had far less paperwork involved in every step of the process.

TFA mentions "regulation" in passing twice, once in the obligatory "this election" political cheering.

Houses in 1970 had poor vapour sealing, little to no air exchange, bad insulation, weak hurricane and earthquake resistance, bad utilities installation, bad foundation stability on expansive soil, weak rodent protection (edit: plywood unveneered cupboards, vinyl or carpet flooring)... I'm quite certain if we built a 1974 house in 2024, it would be done more efficiently, but no one would want to buy it (at 2024 pricing)

It's a bit unfair to compare automation in construction with other industries where you're in a controlled environment (factory). It's a much more difficult problem and therefore would require a much greater investment in technological development, to what end? Put a large percentage of people out of work? Would it really reduce housing prices, or just increase profits?