• @[email protected]
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    235 months ago

    “Do refrigerators still come in big cardboard boxes?” “Yeah, but the rents are outrageous”

  • @[email protected]
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    165 months ago

    The problem with housing is not the cost of the house itself, is the zoning laws that limits the amount of housing that can be built close to workplaces and where people wants to live. Just let construction companies built residential buildings, duplexes and other denser housing that single family detached houses and prices are going to go down.

    • @[email protected]
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      15 months ago

      People generally want that suburban ideal, of a four bedroom house, two car garage, a front and backyard… Zoning would be needed to require housing to be denser, rather than allowing sprawl.

      • @[email protected]
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        35 months ago

        Private contractors also prefer building single family homes because they get paid way more to do 50 individual houses than put up an apartment that houses 50.

        We aren’t here because people are stupid. We are here because this is where all the incentives align.

        • @[email protected]
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          15 months ago

          Sure, absolutely. That’s also why you see “luxury” developments popping up everywhere; they can make cosmetically nicer houses that have a higher profit margin, while not spending significantly more than a more modest house.

          But, again, this is why you need zoning to restrict sprawl.

  • @[email protected]
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    115 months ago

    Mass produced shipping container housing might not be a bad idea though if governments can fund it. As long as they have consistent design requirements factored in (electricity, water, and sewage hookups), a place to set up that hasn’t been NIMBY’d, and offered free to the people, I’d be all for it.

    Let’s end the housing crisis. Let’s end homelessness. It isn’t impossible.

    • @[email protected]
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      125 months ago

      We have houses already. We have enough houses to house everyone, it’s just not profitable to do so.

      • @[email protected]
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        45 months ago

        I live in an an area with a lot of empty houses. A lot of those houses are not fit for human habitation. Someone dies, the house gets tied up in probate, the kids don’t want to live in the area–nor do most other people–and so the house that was already in disrepair degrades more. And, TBH, moving homeless people to rural areas that have a lot of abandoned homes would make it harder for them to access social services.

        Yeah, we have the houses. Just not where the homeless people are.

    • @[email protected]
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      105 months ago

      Do you not know that there is enough housing already? The issue is that housing is an investment object, and giving the people homes isn’t profitable. So a lot of housing goes unused to keep prices high and the investment profitable

  • @[email protected]
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    105 months ago

    I looked into container houses and I’d absolutely love a house that I can move from city to city. Moving without packing shit up. I just wish they weren’t as heavy and a bit wider.

    I’d also love the idea of “stacks” where you can slot in your container home into a vertical grid. The problem is that you generally want your entry to be on the long side, so you’d need lots of corridors in such a stack.

          • @[email protected]
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            15 months ago

            Right? It was such a roller coaster ride with rather empty calories. But to be honest I didn’t like the book that much either, more like the start of an interesting universe. The first novel in The Culture series wasn’t that great either.

  • @[email protected]
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    95 months ago

    Sounds like the tin box is a solution for an individual looking for housing, worth $20,000 in the current environment. Nobody thinks this is a solution to the entire housing crisis.

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      215 months ago

      It’s not a solution tho. Shipping containers are designed to hold freight not people.

      • The walls are thin steel bakes/freezes with temperature, adding insulation just takes away more of the already thin container width
      • Flat roof means rain, leaves, snow, etc just piles up and creates rust
      • Shipping containers are valuable for transport - the real reason you see these and the tiny houses on wheels is because they conveniently ignore land needs for the house to actually sit on
      • @[email protected]
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        25 months ago

        Just to add, as long as the roofs aren’t damaged they are curved enough so rain drips off.

        And while steel isn’t a good insulator it’s not like they insulate any less than other thin materials. But yeah they are too narrow to make the ideal tiny house.

        They are also way too heavy and sturdy, you don’t need your tiny house to be able to be able to hold like 100 tonnes on the roof (posts) or 40 tones on the floor.

  • @[email protected]
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    95 months ago

    You forgot to include that because of bad politics we now rely on corporations to help…

    Some one has to make money to help the poor!

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    95 months ago

    These do help though. They’re great for student housing for example. Here in Albuquerque there is a long tradition of casitas that is thankfully being expanded through relaxed zoning. It provides a relatively quick way to increase density in areas built up with SFH without facing much nimby pushback. Housing prices are detached from supply/demand somewhat but not entirely, increase supply enough and prices drop.

  • @[email protected]
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    55 months ago

    This is Sears all over again. You used to be able to order a house from a catalog.

    They would basically ship you everything you needed to build the house, with some plans, and that was it. Bearing in mind that was a very long time ago.

    Then all houses were built by professionals and prices rose. Houses got better overall, since someone who knew WTF they’re doing, put it all together.

    Now, they won’t even go to where you want the house. Just building the houses for you in some house factory or something and they ship it to you pre-built.

    This is just a trailer home without the wheels! What the actual hell.

    Don’t get me wrong, mobile and trailer homes can be rather nice, but having no wheels… I dunno man, I think we’re moving backwards.