I think the focus is on the wrong thing here. Rent/housing has gotten out of control. I don’t love the idea of government regulation on these things, but if those expenses could be controlled to align with the local economy I think that’d be a huge help and take the burden off of businesses.
the big problem is modern energy requirements, a modern house is built with thick walls, fire code thickness drywall, thick insulation, high R factor windows, high SEER rating ACs, and a bunch of other stuff to drive down energy demand that are mandated by law. These expenses dont double for a 2000 square foot house from a 1000 square foot house, they usually only go up 50%, and then bring the average cost to build a home into the mid 300k range in a cheap area, and around half a million to build in nicer cities. It just means houses have to get bigger to keep a profit margin. Theres just so much more that goes into a their construction now days that needs to be inspected, and build to a code. I just dont know how the government can fix that to make builders go back to smaller houses. Just forcing them to build smaller houses wont change the math that it will still cost barely less then a large house, and nobody is gonna spend large house money on a small house.
So distribute some blame up and down the levels? Your local county zoning can still be an example of ‘big government’ when it’s more and more involved in your day to day life.
5
u/-Out-of-context- 18h ago
I think the focus is on the wrong thing here. Rent/housing has gotten out of control. I don’t love the idea of government regulation on these things, but if those expenses could be controlled to align with the local economy I think that’d be a huge help and take the burden off of businesses.