4 ms·

Either those numbers are obvious nonsense, or this is yet another way California is dysfunctional. In Finland, a typical 8-story midrise is ~50% more expensive

Either those numbers are obvious nonsense, or this is yet another way California is dysfunctional. In Finland, a typical 8-story midrise is ~50% more expensive to build (per square meter) than a typical single-family home. Construction costs only start rising significantly after 10-12 stories.

renewiltord 4y ago
It is an American characteristic. Many more things are possible in this world than are possible in America but to Americans they seem like immutable characteristics rather than the result of choices. Mostly, it is regulation. Example of something is the two staircase rule for buildings.
- ethanbond 4y ago
  Mostly it is zoning which is largely pushed by NIMBYs who are trying to protect their real estate investments.
  - nullc 4y ago
    There is a LOT more than zoning that goes into the cost of construction driven by regulations. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if you could only attribute a single digit percentage of the all in cost to zoning for construction in the bay area. Here is how you could do a first order approximation: Find property zoned so you could build dense housing and get its cost minus the cost of the improvements. Then find matched property zoned for a single family homes, minus their improvements. The difference is attributable to zoning for the purpose of this approximation. What percent of that is that in the overall cost of the multi-unit construction? I'm not sure of the figure but given that the entire land cost isn't that big a percentage in dense construction, I expect the impact from zoning to be fairly small but not negligible.
    - ethanbond 4y ago
      Why would that tell you what zoning is doing? Restrictive zoning raises the costs of all land.
- ghaff 4y ago
  That sounds like a very reasonable regulation to me. I couldn't tell you how regulations pencil out in general for taller buildings but the higher you go, the higher the percentage of the floor plan consumed by things like elevators.

renewiltord 4y ago

It is an American characteristic. Many more things are possible in this world than are possible in America but to Americans they seem like immutable characteristics rather than the result of choices. Mostly, it is regulation. Example of something is the two staircase rule for buildings.

ethanbond 4y ago
Mostly it is zoning which is largely pushed by NIMBYs who are trying to protect their real estate investments.
- nullc 4y ago
  There is a LOT more than zoning that goes into the cost of construction driven by regulations. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if you could only attribute a single digit percentage of the all in cost to zoning for construction in the bay area. Here is how you could do a first order approximation: Find property zoned so you could build dense housing and get its cost minus the cost of the improvements. Then find matched property zoned for a single family homes, minus their improvements. The difference is attributable to zoning for the purpose of this approximation. What percent of that is that in the overall cost of the multi-unit construction? I'm not sure of the figure but given that the entire land cost isn't that big a percentage in dense construction, I expect the impact from zoning to be fairly small but not negligible.
  - ethanbond 4y ago
    Why would that tell you what zoning is doing? Restrictive zoning raises the costs of all land.
ghaff 4y ago
That sounds like a very reasonable regulation to me. I couldn't tell you how regulations pencil out in general for taller buildings but the higher you go, the higher the percentage of the floor plan consumed by things like elevators.