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I think it's been said here already, but I'll go ahead and repeat it since I'm not sure if this thread is for real.
Did you know that house design, floor plan design and construction requires engineers also?
You don’t need an “engineer”. There are hundreds of thousands of home plans with all calculations worked out online which won’t cost you a dime. You can be your own general contractor and build one from scratch. Now, show me how I can build a Hemi on my own. You can argue that the market place determines the price and I won’t argue with that. I am looking at it purely from the investment, skills and technology. You might ridicule the topic but didn’t the same thinking started the Levittowns in the 50s? Somebody said it shouldn’t cost someone 30 years of his life to pay off a home.
You don’t need an “engineer”. There are hundreds of thousands of home plans with all calculations worked out online which won’t cost you a dime. You can be your own general contractor and build one from scratch. Now, show me how I can build a Hemi on my own. You can argue that the market place determines the price and I won’t argue with that. I am looking at it purely from the investment, skills and technology. You might ridicule the topic but didn’t the same thinking started the Levittowns in the 50s? Somebody said it shouldn’t cost someone 30 years of his life to pay off a home.
Sure no one can build a Hemi from scratch, no one has a steel mill in there back yard to make the block or the alumnium head's. And we do no have all the boring machines to boar the block for the pistons and cooling jacket's Sure it cost allot to make a car but once you have everything configured you can mass produce engines like the automakers do. To say that a car should cost more than a house is crazy. If that was the way it is than everyone would living in there car.
the first new car I ever bought cost $4100 in 1969.
the first house I ever bought cost $10,000 in 1972.
the second house I bought, about 1980, cost $40,000.
The second new car I bought, in 1981, cost just over $8000.
Our present house cost $158,000.
On average, a car has been 1 to 2 years pay for a craftsman (mechanic, plumber, carpenter, etc.) For example, a 1941 Chevy Coupe cost about $632, a little over 2 years pay for a $1 per day carpenter or mason.
A house has been about 5 years pay.
Seems to me it is still holding pretty true.
I think it's been said here already, but I'll go ahead and repeat it since I'm not sure if this thread is for real.
Did you know that house design, floor plan design and construction requires engineers also?
That wasn't true in 1950, and I don't believe it now.
In 1950, my mother drew the floor plan, and my step-father built the house
My mother was a men's tailor.
My step father was a cowboy turned carpenter turned tree faller.
The construction crew was my step father, my mother, my sister, and me. I was 10, my sister was 16.
I see similar things happening today. It is basic carpentry, not rocket science.
As for cars, there are still people who take car parts and design and build their own vehicles, just like they did in the hey-day of hotrods. They use common sense, not engineers!
It is popular these days to say that cars cost more than a small house. My view is they should cost even more. Just think what goes into making cars today and compare it with a bunch of 2x4s and a box of nails that anybody can hammer together. You can’t pile on a bunch of day workers in the back of a truck to build you a jewel like this. The engine is the most visible part. Every piece that goes into a modern car is a marvel of engineering that requires unique skills and expensive equipment to make. What goes into a house? Wood, concrete, asphalt shingles, doors and windows, drywall, paint... you get the point.
I'll give you a deal and sell you my car for less than my house cost. Let's say $275,000 OBO. Let me know!
Sorry, but I have never seen a $800,000 car, other than some super collectibles at Barrett-Jackson, and that's what a new house starts at here.
Now if you consider a manufactured home (double-wide) yes, they can be bought for less than many cars, though that's without land, foundation or utilities.
A house is much more labor-intensive. And the process is so much more time-consuming. I don't know what a mass-produced car takes from start to finish -- less than a week? A couple days? The cars that take three to six months to build by hand ARE as expensive as a very nice, one-of-a-kind house.
I've never seen a picture of robots putting up drywall. Or laying tile. Lots of photos of auto assembly lines with multiple steps performed robotically. If every step of the auto assembly line still WAS performed by a person, cars WOULD be a lot more expensive.
You don’t need an “engineer”. There are hundreds of thousands of home plans with all calculations worked out online which won’t cost you a dime. You can be your own general contractor and build one from scratch. Now, show me how I can build a Hemi on my own. You can argue that the market place determines the price and I won’t argue with that. I am looking at it purely from the investment, skills and technology. You might ridicule the topic but didn’t the same thinking started the Levittowns in the 50s? Somebody said it shouldn’t cost someone 30 years of his life to pay off a home.
you just blew your whole argument here. sure you can get the plans for a house, and buy the materials needed to put it together, and do that part for a pretty good price. and you can save a lot of money doing the contractors job as well. but then you have the labor involved in building the house itself. are you going to do all the work yourself, or do you farm out some things. for instance are you going to dig the foundation, level and compact the area, set the rebar, mix the concrete, pour the concrete, and smooth it out yourself? if so then figure at least two weeks to do that job as you have to deal with the weather and the amount of time it will take just to dig and level the foundation footprint. and then you can work to compact the area where the concrete is going to be poured.
and dont forget that you still have to dig the lines for the sewer, water, gas, etc. and make sure they come up where they are supposed to according to the plans, and that when pouring the foundation, when you get to that point, you dont accidentally cover up those runs. or you can spend a lot of money by hiring a subcontractor to do that job for you.
are you going to build and set your own walls? or are you going to hire that out as well? how about the electrical and plumbing rough ins? and once the frame is built are you going to run the duct work yourself? as for the duct work, are you going to build it yourself?
just like building a car, the more work you do yourself the more money you can save. but unlike building a car, most jobs building a house require a lot of hands on labor if any kind of speed is going to be achieved. where as with building a car, one or two people can do the wiring and plumbing, a house is going to have more like six people doing those jobs, especially if you have a schedule to keep. remember you have to deal with the schedules of ALL the subcontractors at the same time, and any changes are going to kill this one off custom build as far as time goes, because all to often certain things have to be done before the next contractors can come in behind to do their work.
these is so much that goes into building a house, that is makes building a car seem as easy as building a lego model.
A house is much more labor-intensive. And the process is so much more time-consuming. I don't know what a mass-produced car takes from start to finish -- less than a week? A couple days? The cars that take three to six months to build by hand ARE as expensive as a very nice, one-of-a-kind house.
I've never seen a picture of robots putting up drywall. Or laying tile. Lots of photos of auto assembly lines with multiple steps performed robotically. If every step of the auto assembly line still WAS performed by a person, cars WOULD be a lot more expensive.
the automakers generally have one car coming off their assembly lines every 60 seconds. each car takes about eight hours to build on the assembly line start to finish, assuming you are following one car.
Cars are mass produced. The tooling, machinery, engineering costs, and salaries, contribute to most of the cost. These costs are fixed and spread out over millions of cars. The actual material is a relatively small cost. A house, is not mass produced, the pay human capital is significant and can't be spread out.
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