We all know ways to cut the cost of home building
1. We could cut our costs $1 billion a year $1,000 a house by using mechanical muscles instead of human muscles to move our heavy materials. (H&H, Jan., Feb., June 1956).
2. We could cut our costs another $1 billion a year by ending the senseless waste of labor and materials entrenched in thousands of conflicting local building codes. (H&H, Sept. '52). But that SI billion saving can be realized only if builders, architects, engineers, mortgage lenders, realtors, lumber dealers and manufacturers join in a united front and enlist the support of home buyer and homeowner groups like the women's clubs, the American Legion, and the vfw.
There is no excuse for any local electrical code whose safety requirements exceed the National Electrical Code. There is no excuse for any local plumbing code whose requirements exceed the new national plumbing code. There is no excuse for any local framing code that requires studs and trusses closer than 2' on centers.
3. We could curb land price inflation by
a. making it easier to increase the supply of developed land partly by extending community facilities faster partly by new legislation and/or regulations making it easier to finance land development.
b. taking advantage of the great economy offered by today's new earth-moving giants to develop close-in sites earlier builders passed up. Earth-moving is the only cost that is still as low as in 1932.
c. taxing land more adequately. You need not be a single-taxer disciple of Henry George to believe the speculative profits in suburban land should be taxed at least enough to pay for many of the community facilities needed to make those speculative profits possible. Every state and every community should consider a local counterpart of the Pennsylvania graded property tax, which discourages land speculation and encourages property improvement by making the tax rate on land twice as high as the tax rate on the improvement.
The US is almost the only modern country where nothing is done to discourage land price inflation. London is four times as big as Los Angeles, but builders can buy all the land they want within 30 miles of London for $1,500 an acre.
4. We could save the big fees and discounts we pay for mortgage money by giving up the shibboleth of a 4½% fixed interest rate and admitting the failure of our five-year struggle to borrow at less than the market rate.