
How luxury housing becomes affordable - oftenwrong
http://cityobservatory.org/making_luxury_housing_affordable/
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deephoney
After living in Edinburgh in one of the very nice & ubiquitous 100 y.o. plus
tenement flats, I've often wondered about the long-term impact of housing
durability on affordability.

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technobabble
Lately a lot of the new student "luxury" housing near in my former college
town have atrocious quality. Super-thin spitboard doors that one can break
with one kick, little noise dampening, leather couches that are
cracked/brittle after a year of use.

Like with car brands, you can get a Rolls Royce i.e. "real" luxury, or the
simulation of luxury i.e. an Infiniti or Buick. Not to say those other types
of luxury aren't bad, however it's important to make the distinction.

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jwess
I wonder if using wood (2x4's, OSB) as a structural material has a negative
impact on long-term durability. In North America, virtually all residential
single-family construction is wood-frame, which is unusual compared to most
other countries.

Masonry, insulating concrete forms (ICF), and poured concrete have superior
fire-resistance, insulating properties (thermal and acoustic), and strength--
and no need to worry about termites.

I don't fully understand why wood-frame construction still dominates, even in
the "luxury" segment, but I think it's related to strong consumer preference
for large homes. Given a fixed budget, you can build a larger house using wood
compared to almost any other material (factoring in labor, e.g. 'compressed
earth' construction uses cheap material and more labor). But the preference
for larger homes doesn't explain why wood-framing is so popular in areas where
construction costs are very low relative to land-value.

