I'm finishing construction next month an 1,100 sq/ft single family home in the north bay area; a very high cost-of-living region. We started construction in Sept 2021, after an intentional delay of a couple months to let lumber prices drop after peaking in May-June. My home will be built for about $350k (less land acquisition). I'm acting as contractor and have connections in the industry so very few can build at my cost. BUT, When I see numbers in articles like this ($837k ea), after dealing with pandemic construction pricing myself, it's painfully obvious there is a terrible lack of cost-control. This is not a sustainable solution. And scapegoating on the pandemic is not helpful.
I'm convinced most government agencies cannot manage this type construction in an affordable way, including my home county of Sonoma where we are spending $250k - $350k per homeless person to house them in refurbished hotel rooms (remodeling, not new construction).
I don't know what the solution is, but I have become convinced that local governments cannot build their way out of this. We have to come up with something better.
I'm convinced most government agencies cannot manage this type construction in an affordable way, including my home county of Sonoma where we are spending $250k - $350k per homeless person to house them in refurbished hotel rooms (remodeling, not new construction).
I don't know what the solution is, but I have become convinced that local governments cannot build their way out of this. We have to come up with something better.