Don Bowen:
>There would be a very small increase in new house prices if the price of
>wood jumped. All the framing in a house comes to less than 15% of the
>total cost. What is driving the price of houses are land costs and the
>demand for bigger houses.
I have not heard for quite some time how much the cost is enlarged by the
various local and state code and connection fees.
The bigger house phenomenon is at once reassuring and sad. Reassuring that
our economy is so strong that Americans can have so much and sad that our
values are so dollar driven. I was looking through the book, The Not So Big
House again last night. The houses featured are smaller than the behemoths
presently popular but the prices are far higher than anyone I know could
afford. Which leads to another condition, the waning of the great American
middle class.
I am a wealthy person but I have very few dollars.
