I know about the residential market being in the tank from the newsletters, emails and phone calls I receive daily. But I was not fully aware of how deep the crevasse ran nor how broad the competition for property is. In Utah where I live one in a 100 persons is a real estate agent or a broker or both. One in 110 calls himself a builder. Properties change ownership so often that boundary and right of way descriptions regularly get left off deed recordings.
Meanwhile population densities are increasing so rapidly that newspapers fill column space with accounts of neighbors fighting neighbors over spaces to park their families’ five cars. Vacant land is so sparse that brown fields suddenly qualify as prime building lots and developers cajole politicians into approving developments that straddle fault lines, flood plains and alluvial fans. Not long ago my wife and I answered an advertisement for a $260,000 building lot that turned out to be a vertical gravel pit hacked out of a mountain side, its high price due to its view of the city. The question is how far down the road of progress are we willing to tread? Continual construction stimulates the economy and promotes spending. But will high real estate and building material prices slow the decline or add fuel to the fire?
I have been searching for some time trying to figure out the 'real' difference between frame home building and concrete home building. I often ask builders what they charge for concrete homes and I find their rates all over the board. My take is that the general rules “Get all you can—then run like crazy.”
I really want to believe in concrete home construction but I am losing faith. My nephew Ryan Gundry and his wife Kari recently told me they are planning on building a 3,000 square-foot home within the next 6 months for themselves and their six kids. They really wanted to build with insulating concrete forms (ICFs) but at first couldn’t find a builder that would built it for them. When Ryan and Kari finally did find a builder acquainted with ICFs, the bid came in $40,000 higher than they received from the wood frame builder. Ryan and Kari were disappointed. The final decision was a no brainer; they went with the stick builder.
Sometimes I sit and shake my head in wonderment at this industry. We seem content to wallow in our misery. We whine and complain. We focus on greed. We despise our competition and our leaders. We’re not going to hell in a hand basket—yet—but unless concrete home builders, form manufacturers—especially ICF manufacturers because they control the newest technology—and cement/ready-mix producers cut the cost of construction either through lower material prices or better labor practices, frame construction is going to win out every time. Can we change? Yes. When? That’s up to us.