[leehuffman]

Why is everyone (ok, fine, mostly economics & tech people) convinced this is such a wildly viable slam dunk of an idea?

Have y'all ever opened up a wall before and seen the electrical, plumbing, etc mechanical bits that make up a home? Any idea of what it'd cost to chop up that office space and feed every individual piece the necessary bits?

It's outrageous that we're even talking about this idea still. It'd require wildddddd tax advantages & federal spends in order to execute on it in any sense of the overarching idea.

[HPsquared]

Houses are like a million dollars. Some plumbing is maybe 10k?

[nradov]

Are you joking? Regular houses are nowhere near a million dollars in most of the country.

[mdp2021]

But where do you need to live? 237 cities does not mean "very special places".

See (hours fresh article):

> A Thursday report from Zillow indicates that a typical starter home is now worth $1 million or more in 237 cities, up from 84 cities in 2019, underscoring America’s ongoing home affordability crisis

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/26/business/more-starter-hom...

[nradov]

You don't "need" to live anywhere in particular. Many of those 237 cities are part of larger high-cost metro areas.

Move to the Columbus, OH area (or something like that). There are plenty of affordable homes for sale there. Or buy cheap vacant land and build whatever you want. The unemployment rate is low so it's not hard to find a job. Some people are just too picky about location and only want to complain or find excuses instead of doing something to improve their situation.

[HPsquared]

I'm talking about the places with housing shortages where it might make sense to spend money converting an office block.

[ericd]

Have you talked with contractors recently? It costs a lot more than you seem to think it does.