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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   22497 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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Newly constructed homes are also quite a bit bigger than they used to be, particularly in the Northeast.

I agree with this based on my general observations.

The higher cost of red tape means the fixed costs of development are higher and push builders into building larger, more costly homes to cover the higher fixed costs

Well suppose you buy a lot in a fancy suburb for $1.5 million; build some monstrous house for another $1.5 million, and sell the whole thing for $3.5 million, netting you a $500k profit (less the interest on your financing). How much of the money involved went into red tape? And how much would have been spent on the equivalent deal from 30 years ago?

The last time I saw any anecdotes about this was at leasr 6 years ago. From builders, it cost about $250k per lot after buying to buy a large parcel to have the legal right to build a subdivision.

If you buy a lot, the price likely already includes most of the cost. Its buying lots of land and getting the rights to build more than one home that is expensive.

The last time I saw any anecdotes about this was at leasr 6 years ago. From builders, it cost about $250k per lot after buying to buy a large parcel to have the legal right to build a subdivision.

That sounds high to me. Perhaps they are including the cost of building access roads; sewer connections; municipal water connections; etc.

If you buy a lot, the price likely already includes most of the cost.

And yet single lot developers are building much bigger houses nowadays than in the past. Which makes me think that there is much more in play than just the cost of red tape.

Yes, they were including all of those costs.

Yes, they were including all of those costs.

In that case, I would disagree with attributing $250,000 to "red tape." When you build a house you need to have a sewer hookup; water; electricity; and so on. I suppose one could argue that these things are legal requirements and therefore count as "red tape," but realistically who is going to buy a new house in a subdivision if there is no water, sewer, electricity, or road access?

Also, I am pretty sure that these things have been required for decades in new subdivisions.

One big recent increase in costs is driven by subdivisional development having a water runoff abatement infastructure.

Undeveloped land (especially forested) land is something like a sponge that the trees slowly return to the atmosphere, while paved/construction sheds water. New developments need to capture nearly all the excess shed water resulting from their development to reduce the water flowing through stormwater management systems and prevent flooding of older construction which generally didn't need to perform any stormwater abatement.

One big recent increase in costs is driven by subdivisional development having a water runoff abatement infastructure.

That may very well be, but I would like to see documentation showing (1) the breakdown of how that $250,000 figure is reached; and (2) how those components have changed over the years.

I would also like to see a plausible explanation for the situation with single lot developments.

One thing Austin did was cut the minimum lot size for single family home. Less lawn but you can build 3 times the number of homes. Makes sense that supply increases and prices decreases.

  1. https://austinmonitor.com/stories/2024/05/austin-cuts-minimum-lot-size-by-more-than-a-third-requiring-less-land-to-build-a-home/
  2. I first learnt about it when the mayor talked to Bloomberg news: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gNwx1Z_8vHw?is=Qpk96aObhARYtV63

One thing Austin did was cut the minimum lot size for single family home. Less lawn but you can build 3 times the number of homes. Makes sense that supply increases and prices decreases.

I agree that this would make sense, in the sense that permitting more units of housing to be built would be expected to result in a reduction in price per unit. Of course, whether this is good public policy is a separate question. And it doesn't seem like an efficient cause of the explosion in prices for single family houses.

Of course, whether this is good public policy is a separate question

Well yes, this is a value judgment. Young people might appreciate the ability to buy these cheaper (but smaller houses). Older homeowners might not appreciate the riff raffs. But maybe in a few years they will appreciate the economic boom from the population growth. For what it's worth, I do think Austin politicians are saying they are one of the few that has successfully tackle housing affordability in the country.

And it doesn't seem like an efficient cause of the explosion in prices for single family houses.

Well, I did want to point out that when Austin had the old (larger) minimum lot size, that is an example of red tape increasing cost of house. If 3x houses can be sold from the same square footage, it goes to show that before only 1 house can be sold, and the developer would have to make it a pretty expensive house (I don't know if it would have been 3x but certainly 1.5x to 2.5x).

Well yes, this is a value judgment. Young people might appreciate the ability to buy these cheaper (but smaller houses). Older homeowners might not appreciate the riff raffs.

There are other factors as well. Perhaps the increased density of housing will lead to increased congestion on city streets; overcrowded schools; etc.

Well, I did want to point out that when Austin had the old (larger) minimum lot size, that is an example of red tape increasing cost of house.

Well the claim being made was that single family houses have become more expensive over the years, in part because they are being built larger, and a big factor in this is that increases in "red tape" have incentivized developers to build larger houses. So it seems like example you point to is not really relevant to this claim.

I can tell you that in my suburb, there is no more land to be subdivided; if someone wants to build a new house, they have to buy an existing house; tear it down; and construct a new one. Thus, there has been essentially no change in minimum lot size requirements. Nevertheless, developers are frantically tearing down houses from the 50s and 60s which were in the range of 1500-2000 square feet and replacing them with new houses roughly double the size. Moreover, this phenomenon is pretty common throughout the big city suburbs in the Northeast. This suggests that the "red tape" of minimum lot sizes is not what is driving this change.

Hmmmm, I will take the example of your suburb to illuminate my point.

To me, looks like there is increased housing demand in your area. Yet, the same rule for minimum lot size being unchanged means supply can't keep up. Like let's take the viewpoint of the builder. They have to buy a lot at more expensive prices. Only one house is allowed to be put on it. Thankfully there is a lot of demand so there must be at least one big catch in the sea. But those big catches won't buy older houses, so you gotta build. So the builder makes that one house more expensive (bigger house/better amenities/more expensive construction details/HOA/etc.).

The red tape hasn't changed, but the cost of the red tape certainly increased. Nothing here says that "more red tape has been added throughout the years leading to higher costs", but merely "existing red tape going unchanged and not responding to new dynamics of the given locality leading to higher costs".

The red tape hasn't changed, but the cost of the red tape certainly increased. Nothing here says that "more red tape has been added throughout the years leading to higher costs", but merely "existing red tape going unchanged and not responding to new dynamics of the given locality leading to higher costs".

I see your point, but I think that's a strained interpretation of the following statement:

The higher cost of red tape means the fixed costs of development are higher

Most people would understand the phrase "higher cost of red tape" to mean that regulatory requirements have gotten stricter. NOT that regulatory requires have not been sufficiently relaxed.

Indeed, it's worth pointing out that your interpretation could be applied to just about every increase in price of any good or service anywhere in the United States.

For example, suppose the war with Iran heats up and shortly thereafter the price of crude oil (predictably) goes up and shortly after that the price of gasoline (predictably) goes up by some amount. In theory, in response, the United States and various states could relax various regulations regarding the production and distribution of gasoline, which would (predictably) result in gasoline prices going down.

Therefore, under your interpretation, it would be reasonable to attribute the rise in gas prices to "the higher cost of red tape." It would be reasonable to state that the rise in price is due to the government "not responding to new dynamics leading to higher costs." When in reality, most people would state that this hypothetical rise in gas prices was due to the war heating up.

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