Why It's Still So Expensive to Build Homes in America
Odd Lots27 Okt 2025

Why It's Still So Expensive to Build Homes in America

Everyone has an opinion on why housing is so expensive in America -- and to be fair, there are probably a lot of reasons for it. But one simple factor is that homes are expensive to build. Unlike many other physical objects, they haven't gotten cheaper over time. So why is this? And why haven't we found a way to bring down the cost curve by building modular housing in factories or on assembly lines? On this episode, we speak with Brian Potter the author of the new book The Origins of Efficiency. Potter also worked at a modular homes startup that failed, and is also the author of the excellent Construction Physics newsletter. So we talk about what he's learned about housing, as well as broader questions about how operational efficiency is achieved over time across a range of industries.

Read more:
Austin, Salt Lake City Top Global List of Most Affordable Cities
Affordable Housing Left Vulnerable After Trump Fires Building Inspectors

Only Bloomberg - Business News, Stock Markets, Finance, Breaking & World News subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(1217)

The Hidden Plumbing of Commodity Finance

The Hidden Plumbing of Commodity Finance

We talk about the commodity supply chain all the time. We talk about the ports and the trucks and the ships and all of that. But there's another dimension to moving commodities all around the world, w...

1 Juni 46min

How the Invention of Rope Gave Us Modern Civilization

How the Invention of Rope Gave Us Modern Civilization

Rope is easy to take for granted. It seems obvious and straightforward. But of course, it had to be invented. Early humans discovered that by twisting fibers around each other, the resulting structure...

30 Maj 36min

Gita Gopinath on Why Interest Rates Have Surged All Around the World

Gita Gopinath on Why Interest Rates Have Surged All Around the World

There's been a massive selloff in the bond market and rates are rising all around the world. Japan, Korea, the UK... You name it. Gita Gopinath, Harvard economics professor and the former first deputy...

29 Maj 51min

Brendan Greeley on the Real 500-Year History of the Dollar

Brendan Greeley on the Real 500-Year History of the Dollar

We love talking about money. And of course, we love talking about the dollar, in all its varieties — from bank deposits to eurodollars to stablecoins. But what fundamentally is a dollar and who actual...

28 Maj 55min

What It Takes to Run One of London's Most Popular Pubs

What It Takes to Run One of London's Most Popular Pubs

As our listeners know, restaurants are great microcosms for macro-economic trends. They sit at the intersection of everything from consumer confidence to commodity costs to the labor market. So on our...

25 Maj 1h 8min

Architect Norman Foster on Why the West Struggles to Build Big

Architect Norman Foster on Why the West Struggles to Build Big

Not many people think of designing buildings as an exercise in economics, but the entire process is defined by constraints around resources (both physical and financial), and an iconic building can al...

23 Maj 54min

'The Assassin' Fahmi Quadir on How to Survive as a Short-Seller

'The Assassin' Fahmi Quadir on How to Survive as a Short-Seller

A short seller is a gumshoe who roots out a particular story about a specific company and brings it to light. And Fahmi Quadir, the founder and CIO of Safkhet Capital, has been labeled "The Assassin" ...

22 Maj 31min

Why Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman Built The World's Largest Computer Chip

Why Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman Built The World's Largest Computer Chip

Size is the name of the game for the AI chipmaker Cerebras: Their chips are truly massive, about the size of a dinner plate. According to Andrew Feldman, CEO and founder of Cerebras, that is about 58 ...

21 Maj 51min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
varvet
badfluence
rss-borsens-finest
uppgang-och-fall
svd-tech-brief
avanzapodden
fill-or-kill
24fragor
lastbilspodden
rss-dagen-med-di
bathina-en-podcast
borsmorgon
rss-jossan-nina
tabberaset
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
kvalitetsaktiepodden