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

Odd Lots

Bloomberg

News, Investing, Business, News Commentary, Business News

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome.
0:01.8	This is The Michelle Hussein Show.
0:04.2	I'm Michelle Hussein.
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0:48.6	Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast.
0:51.8	I'm Tracy Alloway.
0:52.8	And I'm Joe Wisenthall.
0:54.1	Joe, you're a homeowner now, right? Yeah, it's very fun. Tell me. Tell me how fun it is. I know you've had a few issues that cropped up basically as soon as you bought your new place. I don't want to talk about. Let's go. Let's move on. No. This is part of my carefully planned Yes, I know. Yeah, it's annoying and you have to deal with stuff. And I may have mentioned on the show one time. Actually, I've been lucky by and large. But, yes, it was very funny, you know, I think literally the day or two days after it closed on my apartment in the East Village. You know, it's like when there was something wrong before you just there's just a phone number
1:28.3	of someone you call it the yeah the building still is a super but you know the landlord just deals with
	...

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