4 ms·

How does that happen? For 700k I could hire 2 skilled persons and 5 undocumented immigrants to work an entire year. How long does it take to raise a house?

rtkwe 4y ago
It's not just labor in that cost there's materials to consider too.
- notch656c 4y ago
  Valid point. I looked up average materials cost for a 2000 sq ft house and it was estimated at $120k. Materials costs vary much less across the country than land and labor. For 580k I could hire 2 skilled men and 3 undocumented immigrants for a year. Something isn't right.
  - rtkwe 4y ago
    There's a lot wrong but a lot of it is in your assumptions. For starters there's more than 2 skilled trades that go into a house for starters. Then by hiring them yourself either you or one of those people are going to be playing project manager to make sure they don't run out of materials which is a job in and of itself if you're not familiar with it.
    - notch656c 4y ago
      Hey you can play fuck fuck games all day about how 5 person years of labor, almost half of that highly skilled (I'm accounting ~150k+ all in compensation) is not enough for a cookie cutter 2000 sq ft house. I'm calling bullshit; if it really is taking that much for a McClone basic bitch house then someone is taking the piss somewhere.
loandbehold 4y ago
It's not just manual labor. You need an architect, structural engineer. Getting all permits, environmental analysis. A lot of expensive "knowledge workers" involved. Then there are materials, rental of construction equipment, insurance. Developers who build large number of row houses at the same time can get costs down through economies of scale.
- notch656c 4y ago
  In the county next to me you can self certify and pretty promise you did all that "knowledge worker" shit. No one will ever check, the self certification just promises you did the stuff and the government promises they won't investigate. Somehow not everyone is dying in city-wide house fires. Sounds like southern california done fucked themselves with over-regulating that stuff.
  - asdff 4y ago
    It's because its used as a vehicle for bribery. See Jose Huizar the former LA city councilmember who pleaded guilty for bribery a few days ago. If its easy to get things built then no one would be paying you in paper bags of cash to get things built.
  - gamblor956 4y ago
    Our buildings are built to withstand earthquakes that could level other cities, because we have frequent earthquakes, and building codes were dramatically strengthened following the 1994 Northridge Quake. A single Ritcher 5.8 quake in Virginia in 2011 caused $300 million in damage and disrupted utilities for days in 12 states. A series of earthquakes in 2019 (6.4, 5.4, and 7.1) in California caused so little damage that it's hard to find a tally. Power was knocked in some cities and restored within hours. Yes, CA construction is more expensive. But it's also stronger and more resilient than the cheap crap in the county next to you.

rtkwe 4y ago

It's not just labor in that cost there's materials to consider too.

notch656c 4y ago
Valid point. I looked up average materials cost for a 2000 sq ft house and it was estimated at $120k. Materials costs vary much less across the country than land and labor. For 580k I could hire 2 skilled men and 3 undocumented immigrants for a year. Something isn't right.
- rtkwe 4y ago
  There's a lot wrong but a lot of it is in your assumptions. For starters there's more than 2 skilled trades that go into a house for starters. Then by hiring them yourself either you or one of those people are going to be playing project manager to make sure they don't run out of materials which is a job in and of itself if you're not familiar with it.
  - notch656c 4y ago
    Hey you can play fuck fuck games all day about how 5 person years of labor, almost half of that highly skilled (I'm accounting ~150k+ all in compensation) is not enough for a cookie cutter 2000 sq ft house. I'm calling bullshit; if it really is taking that much for a McClone basic bitch house then someone is taking the piss somewhere.

loandbehold 4y ago

It's not just manual labor. You need an architect, structural engineer. Getting all permits, environmental analysis. A lot of expensive "knowledge workers" involved. Then there are materials, rental of construction equipment, insurance. Developers who build large number of row houses at the same time can get costs down through economies of scale.

notch656c 4y ago
In the county next to me you can self certify and pretty promise you did all that "knowledge worker" shit. No one will ever check, the self certification just promises you did the stuff and the government promises they won't investigate. Somehow not everyone is dying in city-wide house fires. Sounds like southern california done fucked themselves with over-regulating that stuff.
- asdff 4y ago
  It's because its used as a vehicle for bribery. See Jose Huizar the former LA city councilmember who pleaded guilty for bribery a few days ago. If its easy to get things built then no one would be paying you in paper bags of cash to get things built.
- gamblor956 4y ago
  Our buildings are built to withstand earthquakes that could level other cities, because we have frequent earthquakes, and building codes were dramatically strengthened following the 1994 Northridge Quake. A single Ritcher 5.8 quake in Virginia in 2011 caused $300 million in damage and disrupted utilities for days in 12 states. A series of earthquakes in 2019 (6.4, 5.4, and 7.1) in California caused so little damage that it's hard to find a tally. Power was knocked in some cities and restored within hours. Yes, CA construction is more expensive. But it's also stronger and more resilient than the cheap crap in the county next to you.