[ncann]

It always strikes me as odd that we have housing crisis everywhere but these cheap 3D printed houses or ready-to-assemble houses from Amazon never took off. Does people find it off-putting to live in these? Or is it more of a regulation issue? Or land acquisition issue?

[porphyra]

It's a land acquisition issue due to zoning laws and stuff. For example, in the Bay Area, where houses are super expensive, it's just that there are limited numbers of houses and you essentially aren't allowed to build more (without having to jump through insane hoops). Meanwhile, there are huge tracts of land being wasted on low value things like empty parking lots.

Right next to my $1.85M San Jose single family house (1300 sq ft, built in 1959, very unremarkable), there's a plaza with a Dollar Tree that is almost always empty.

In comparison, a "Mobile Home" in the same area would only be $400k [1] , with similar house size and build quality. It's a lot cheaper because you don't own the land.

[1] https://www.zillow.com/san-jose-ca/mobile/

[mawise]

For more on zoning challenges, I'd suggest the book Arbirary Lines[1] by M. Nolan Grey; excellent overview of the history and problems.

[1]: https://islandpress.org/books/arbitrary-lines#desc

[kube-system]

I don't think there's any of these 'solutions' beyond the demonstration phase yet. Also, these 3d printed homes are only 'printing' a relatively small fraction of the work required to create a home.

There are cheap housing options that already exist but they typically have a stigma. This 3d printed home is quoted as 3x more expensive by area than this existing option: https://www.claytonhomes.com/homes/21TRU28563RH/

[mikestew]

It is very often a zoning issue. "Manufactured" housing, which I'll use as a blanket term for anything not completely built on-site, is often equated with "mobile home" or trailers. In the U. S., at least, mobile homes have a stigma that carries over to manufactured housing. IOW, mobile homes are for poor people, and you're not poor, are you?

Consequentially, manufactured homes often have to be built in unincorporated areas which don't have zoning restrictions.

[0x457]

You're going to be surprised, but the solution to the housing crisis isn't 1-2 bedroom single family houses.

[SamBam]

But just imagine... sprawling suburbs as far as the eye can see, all of them printed out by robots. The American Dream.

Now all we need is some robots to clear-cut all the useless vegetation that's occupying the land that these future wonder-developments will sit on.

[thinkingtoilet]

Land is the issue. And more specifically, land in a desirable location.

[swatcoder]

The housing crisis is not universal. The last few decades saw a trend towards re-urbanization and re-centralization after the prior several decades favored flight from urban centers into sprawling suburbs.

That's culminated in excessive demand for housing in areas that are already heavily developed with existing structures and land-use, and pressure for demolition/reconstruction and rezoning for higher density, which is not easy to achieve.

Modular, manufactured, and kit homes are almost universally single family structures which don't do much for that problem. They have a place in ADU (accessory dwelling units) construction that marginally increases density in some neighborhoods or certain kinds of creative urban developments, but mostly just make it easier and cheaper to build out new land in those places that many currently don't see as desirable.

That said, in the big picture, continued innovation in that sector helps ready for the inevitable pendulum reversal as people recognize their urban centers as inaccessible and/or blighted and adopt a new vision of their own future. But that's not a "today" solution or really something that can be controlled very well at all.

[dorkwood]

This house is 80 square meters and cost 150,000€ to build. You can build a regular house of the same size in the US for the same, or less.

[Shog9]

This is also true for a lot of the "kits": they're not particularly inexpensive for the floorspace (especially considering the labor needed), and often require a lot of finish work to be livable. If you have the land, manufactured / modular can end up being more cost effective and considerably quicker.

These strike me as schemes to mark up materials moreso than honest efforts to provide affordable housing.

[imtringued]

I never understood it either. The 3D printed houses look like unfinished throwaway housing. The type you would build as a homeless shelter or refugee camp. When it is time to tear it down, you somehow reuse the concrete in the next house. That is the kind of impression or "vibe" these houses give me.

[doggacula]

This is more a regulation issue, of course. But it's not the kind of regulation which one can call stupid, and repeal. There are objective conflict between people who already stored their savings in houses (directly, or indirectly) with many of those who want to get a house. Combined with the fact that those who already live within few desirable economic centers often want others to stay away.

[simantel]

It's a tech demo for its own sake. We've had cheap pre-fabricated homes for 70+ years in the US and they haven't solved the housing shortage either.

[imtringued]

Housing shortages are always a city planning issue and the planning problem doesn't exist for every city independently either. If one city does something, then other cities may do the opposite and ruin the effort.

[alexashka]

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