Construction is expensive because construction salaries are high.
Authors clearly have never owned a century old building though, as easily shown in the first paragraph:
> Our own walk begins across the street from our apartment, where, following the recent demolition of a perfectly serviceable hundred-year-old building, a monument to ugliness has recently besieged the block
Century old buildings (I own in one!) are full of problems (plumbing, electricity, insulation, heating, lead paint) that are big projects for their owners, which 75% of the time they just ignore (thus kicking the can down the road), because renovation is even more expensive if you want to keep your building pretty / not destroy half your building while doing this. It’s a fun project for upper middle class folks who have either a lot of time to dedicate to them or a lot of money, sure, but not practical safe housing for most people.
Hah yeah I live in a century home I know that feel. Double brick walls are lovely but there are definite downsides to living in that old a building. It's just that there's the obvious question "why don't we build new Old Buildings"? Some of it is obviously labour - nobody wants to pay a bricklayer in this day and age.
I was mostly confused because I live in the greater Toronto/Hamilton area, which rapidly joined Vancouver and SF in insane price inflation, and so we're talking million dollar homes made of cheap materials.
Authors clearly have never owned a century old building though, as easily shown in the first paragraph:
> Our own walk begins across the street from our apartment, where, following the recent demolition of a perfectly serviceable hundred-year-old building, a monument to ugliness has recently besieged the block
Century old buildings (I own in one!) are full of problems (plumbing, electricity, insulation, heating, lead paint) that are big projects for their owners, which 75% of the time they just ignore (thus kicking the can down the road), because renovation is even more expensive if you want to keep your building pretty / not destroy half your building while doing this. It’s a fun project for upper middle class folks who have either a lot of time to dedicate to them or a lot of money, sure, but not practical safe housing for most people.