[JKCalhoun]

"If it was, we'd just build smaller and have houses."

Someone needs to tell the big developers. They keep turning out McMansions (and somehow selling them?).

There's no profit in building smaller.

[win311fwg]

The local business producing single-wides seems to be doing fairly well and has been in business for over 60 years, so I am not sure it is accurate to say that there is no profit. The market is small, though. If you can afford a small new house you can also afford a large used house and most people are going to choose the larger house every time. In aggregate, there isn't a whole lot of incentive for someone to build a small house.

[inigyou]

Yep. If you're already paying for whatever the city says is the minimum amount of land you can buy, the house on top is trivial.