[dahart]

> consider that houses/building are all different (not commodities)

The vast majority of US housing construction is tract housing, which is a commodity. In the EU, flats, which are also commodities.

[mathisfun123]

Citation please. Certainly I'm aware of cookie cutter developments but "vast majority" seems like an exaggeration to me.

[williamcotton]

”The current market share of custom-built homes is approximately 19% of total single-family starts”

https://www.nahb.org/blog/2025/08/custom-home-building-grows...

[xvedejas]

New multifamily construction in the US that has to undergo design review is arguably fairly custom in that each site will have different requirements. I think it's fair to say that commoditization is a spectrum?

[mannyv]

The structure of most residential construction in the US is standardized. Foundation (or slab), wood framing, etc. There are different levels of quality, but codes and standards mean that standardization is the norm.

[zeckalpha]

tract != multifamily

[xvedejas]

I was not talking about tract housing. Where I live there is no tract housing construction.

[zeckalpha]

GP was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47468179