[MrFoof]

There’s some massive variance in 4-over-1 and 5-over-1, with newer units very much built to a price.

I lived in one in Boston that was 4 total floors, actually all steel framed (so not really a 3-over-1), polished concrete floors in every unit, and built to the tune of $55M for ~150 units. Was intended to be condos, bottom fell out in 2007/2008, so it was rezoned to apartments. Dead silent in the over 8 years I was there. I must’nt of been the only one that thought it was good — there was a notable rapper as my next door neighbor, and a Stanley Cup winner in another hallway on my floor. I moved in when the market bottomed out, and paid like $1700/mo for years (moved out when it went up to $2450). I think it’d be ~$4000/mo now.

The newer ones though? I’ve heard of sub-$20M costs for similar number of units. They leak not because of the sprinklers, but because the general waterproofing and roofing is beyond awful, and just cost-cutting everywhere. I talked to some maintenance folks that had been to several new ones owned by the same company as the $55M one: “They don’t build them like that anymore. If they did, we wouldn’t be dealing with constant problems.”. Talk up your maintenance folk — they’ll be more than happy to vent about your building’s issues.

So the issue is building things to a price, knowing some people will pay because the vacancy rate is one of the tightest in the country.

[nradov]

It's also a matter of information asymmetry. Most potential renters or buyers don't have a good way to check for construction quality and interior noise levels. Even an independent pre-purchase inspection doesn't tell you much beyond really obvious problems. Customers aren't willing to pay more for higher quality because they can't easily determine quality, so most developers will go with the cheapest possible option and then slap on some granite countertops to make it look nice.

This could be addressed through stricter building codes. But that would drive up construction costs at a time when we already have a housing shortage in many areas.

[SilasX]

Another fix would be to independently measure noise isolation and report that, so renters can actually make decisions based on it, and builders would have an incentive to include it, since they could more reliably charge more for it.

[jacobr1]

Someone should do that with good branding. Sorta like carfax. Call the Zillow Report or find a similar firm. License the standards and a saas interface to Inspectors to have another revenue stream (or maybe more broadly to contractors). Then it could become a defacto standard, especially if you get in with real estate agents.