Overnight News: Can 3D-printing bring lasting value back to production housing?

Until 1974, production homes in Metropolitan Phoenix were block-constructed ranch houses: The side-walls, frequently windowless, bore the load of a rafter-and-shingle roof. Single-story, necessarily, and wide-and-shallow on the lot, like all ranch homes. Galvanized-steel ducting, so low hallways – and low ceilings generally. The trade-off, of course, is that a block-home will stand for centuries. The roof needs maintenance, but the walls are not going anywhere.

They built zillions of these homes in the decades after World War II – America’s suburbanizing miracle. But then in 1974 the brick-masons went on strike and the new-home builders switched to stick-and-stucco construction – Orange County vaulted. Because the homes are built on a truss, the ceilings can soar – with aluminized-mylar hose to hide the ugly ducting. When AC-compressors were pulled off roofs, the roofs got tiled, and we’ve been building stick-stucco-and-tile ever since.

But unlike block-homes, stick-stucco-and-tile houses are wedding cakes: They melt in very short order without constant maintenance.

Because block-homes last – and because they can withstand repeated remodelings – they seem to represent a better long-term value for home-buyers. By contrast, the steady maintenance required by stick-built homes can lead to whole communities seeming to crash all at once, with too-obvious deferred maintenance leading in lockstep by bad example.

My point would be what? I’m delighted to see concrete returning to the new-home subdivision sales office. Not here quite yet, but the price of lumber makes thoroughly-modern masonry more competitive every day.

In other news:

Housing Wire: Real Estate Exchange files antitrust suit against Zillow, NAR.

CNBC: 3D-printed housing developments suddenly take off – here’s what they look like.

Victory Girls: Ilhan Omar Wants to Take Your Rental Properties.

City Journal: Crossing the Line: The CDC stretched its authority to halt evictions, but it has taken a hands-off approach to preventing the spread of Covid-19 across the southern border.

Julie Kelly: One Year Later, Vindication for Lockdown Skeptics: The overwhelming majority of Americans last March acted in good faith to do what we were told was in the best interest of our country. That faith has been abused and squandered.