from Hacker News

House Costs Just $20k-But It’s Nicer Than Yours

by weef on 8/20/20, 9:37 PM with 20 comments

• by olliej on 8/21/20, 1:10 AM

  The bulk of a "house" price in populated areas is the cost of the land.

  That's why rundown, dilapidated, etc "homes" in the Bay Area are so expensive. You're paying for the land. So a $20k home is still going to cost you a stupid amount.

  If you go out to the middle of nowhere, you can get huge, and amazing, homes for less that $100k (because no one wants to live there).

• by jdhn on 8/20/20, 11:11 PM

  What I want to know is how we can incorporate some of the innovations that they used (such as cantilvers for the foundation) into traditionally built houses. Also, how we tweak building codes to allow for these new innovations so that the houses pass inspection without having to have days long classes to explain to inspectors that yes, they really are safe?

• by kevindong on 8/21/20, 1:55 AM

  I'm curious about why they decided to design a one bedroom home. In my midwest hometown of ~10,000 people (which was also the biggest town for ~12 miles in any direction), one bedroom homes essentially don't exist (I checked Zillow and there's exactly 4 listed as for sale or recently sold).

• by taitems on 8/21/20, 12:18 AM

  What a needlessly abrasive headline.

• by Jsharm on 8/21/20, 9:06 AM

  Why does a mortgage cost the bank $2300?