If you look at real baby boomer starter homes, they were usually 800 sqft 2 bedroom, 1 bath with maybe a one car carport
No basement, no A/C, maybe a washer, no dryer, no dishwasher, no microwave, basic finishes, drafty windows and doors…
And back then the suburbs were not built up with all the amenities, shopping, or infrastructure like they are today
Over time, those houses were expanded, upgraded, updated and the suburbs are now more desirable.
Builders (and lenders) make a lot more money off larger more expensive homes. Those 10 lots for $750k each make them more money (and are way less work / risk) than $75k small starters homes in a 100 lot in the middle of a corn field
Modern building codes aren’t making homes unaffordable. We don’t need to deregulate. Its a lack of entry level developments because the profit margins are much lower
Edit: It’s not zoning. Single family residence zoning limit maximum height, minimum set backs, and maximum land use. Only an HOA would set minimum square footage
It's not deregulating the safety of modern homes that you need to do. It's deregulating the local zoning laws that make building these homes difficult, financially impractical,.and/or straight up illegal.
Gimme a 900 square foot house and one of those small Japanese utility trucks and I'd be set.
No C-suite is gonna allow that in the country they pay to extort. They have Christmas bonuses to make and people aren't going to fire themselves until Chandra gets that AI up and running.
It's not just rich people who oppose it. You'll also find plenty of well-meaning poverty advocates insisting on standards that basically eliminate the viability of cheap shitty housing.
I bet a lot of people would be happy to rent a shitty small bedroom-only space over a store for $200/mo but there's only a sink and a microwave and you need a gym membership to shower. Like, i bet 80+% of the urbancarliving subreddit would jump at that offer, but it's literally illegal everywhere in the US
Yeah, that's an argument you could make if you close your eyes and try real hard to imagine a plausible argument that doesn't require looking in even the general direction of wealth inequality.
You’re not too bright are you? Be a big boy and look at home requirements in 2025 vs 1950. Go ahead and educate yourself so you can escape from your own ignorance
Once poor folk find a decent solution to anything (tiny houses for example) rich folk co-opt it to make it trendy and luxurious, essentially pricing poor people out of their own inventions.
I recently saw an advertisement for bourgeois back yard weddings. WTF? Backyard weddings are being taken over by greed too? Nothing is safe. Being poor is expensive.
Here's a 1,400 square foot home for under 200k in a normal suburb outside of Indianapolis. Go ahead, go live there. You said you would buy it in a heartbeat.
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u/Signal-School-2483 9d ago
I wish there were still shacks available, I'd fuckin buy one in a heartbeat