Comment 68284

By highwater (registered) | Posted August 19, 2011 at 14:35:08 in reply to Comment 68283

At the risk of mystoneycreeking the thread, there would need to be a shift in values as well. Devoting a larger share of housing prices to the cost of construction is only half the battle. Too much of construction costs are devoted to quantity rather than quality. Construction resources are being spent on square footage rather than the labour and materials that would produce a higher quality, but smaller, home for the same price.

In any case, the problem as I see it isn't so much that the average worker's wages are too low to enable them to hire skilled craftspeople, the problem is that good design, quality materials, and craftsmanship aren't valued enough by the people who can afford it, and who after all are the arbiters of taste - hence the proliferation of stucco McMansions.

Until we move away from our current model of disposable architecture, increasing the average wage will just increase the amount of stucco and vinyl going into our homes.

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