Housing can be very affordable if living in a dense metropolitan area is not a requirement. There are also some efficiency gains happening with design automatio

Housing can be very affordable if living in a dense metropolitan area is not a requirement. There are also some efficiency gains happening with design automation and prefabrication that are very slowly creeping into the industry. I think an immediate option with real benefits would be to provide a small tax advantage for businesses to allow remote/hybrid work. Obviously not everyone can do this, but for those that can, they could live where they can afford to and stop spending hours a day driving to and from an office. Personally, I work at an AEC firm that requires physical presence; however, I have had nearly zero productive in-person interactions in the office. The design team is in another state. Meetings are on MS Teams even when everyone is a few feet aeay from each other. If I talk to anyone, it's purely for the relief of the distraction it provides. I spend no less than 10hr a week commuting.