America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
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Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#2This is not new. I just watched a video a few days ago talking about Levittown, built in the post-WWII boom, where the house lots were just big enough to build septic systems for each, given the current state of the ground/drainage. So as the soil compacted/absorbed the output of the houses, and as people installed washing machines, and and as people converted their attics to additional bedrooms (which they were originally told was fine to do) and occupancy/water use went up, hundreds (thousands?) of backyards became soft, smelly swamps. Eventually the whole neighborhood had to switch to sewers, at enormous expense.
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#3For anyone who wants to see clear examples of these defects from an inspectors point of view… For a while I was completely addicted to watching inspection videos of brand new homes where the inspector shows poor craftsmanship and sometimes even dangerous defects - the best in the genre IMO is Cy https://youtube.com/@cyfyhomeinspections?si=zldoP3BpzK6mUzDc check out his YT shorts. Example after example of terrible defects in brand new homes in Arizona
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#4>“You have to start value-engineering every component of the home, which means making compromises, not in quality, but in the way that you actually configure the homes,” Lennar CEO Stuart Miller said in an interview with Bloomberg Television last year.
>D.R. Horton similarly promised its investors it would find ways to cut costs, like “replacing certain high quality fixtures and finishes with less expensive yet still high-quality fixtures and finishes.”
Enshittification to the max
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#5From the publisher:
We generate revenue in two ways:
1) Litigation. We may partner with litigation firms that bring cases empowered by the facts our reporting uncovers, aimed at getting restitution for people who have been harmed. Relevant litigation deals are disclosed in our articles.
2) Investment. When our reporting does not include Material Non-Public Information (“insider info”), we may share it with our affiliated fund. Relevant investments are disclosed in our articles.
- end quote
Not saying that these complaints aren’t valid, but this is PR dressed up as reportage by a short seller/litigation investor.
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#6>“You have to start value-engineering every component of the home, which means making compromises, not in quality, but in the way that you actually configure the homes,” Lennar CEO Stuart Miller said in an interview with Bloomberg Television last year. >D.R. Horton similarly promised its investors it would find ways to cut costs, like “replacing certain high quality fixtures and finishes with less expensive yet still…
No wonder everyone knows Lennar build quality is terrible everywhere.
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#7This is not new. I just watched a video a few days ago talking about Levittown, built in the post-WWII boom, where the house lots were just big enough to build septic systems for each, given the current state of the ground/drainage. So as the soil compacted/absorbed the output of the houses, and as people installed washing machines, and and as people converted their attics to additional bedrooms (which they were orig…
> This is not new.
Nothing under the sun is new, but we do currently live in a time with unprecedented levels of open corruption where nobody seems to feel the slightest amount of guilt for clearly immoral behavior as long as they get away with it.
And even in cases where what you do is explicitly illegal legal enforcement is largely contingent on whether or not whatever corrupt thing you did made you rich enough to pay the Get Out of Jail tax.
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#8I bought a home a few years ago. We chose an older 1940's wood home near downtown in a California town. Its solid. Meanwhile, friends of ours have bought newly constructed homes with all the modern features, and the horror stories they have...
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#9Companies enshittify in every sector to meet growth targets, and if you believe Bernanke the pressures on growth targets come from the global investment market struggling to find enough places to invest, but where does the undersupply of places to invest come from?
Is it just a civilization-wide structural incentive to overbuild investment capital relative to uses for it or is there a structural cause for inadequate quantities of reliable investment sinks?
Re: America's Large Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
#10For anyone who wants to see clear examples of these defects from an inspectors point of view… For a while I was completely addicted to watching inspection videos of brand new homes where the inspector shows poor craftsmanship and sometimes even dangerous defects - the best in the genre IMO is Cy https://youtube.com/@cyfyhomeinspections?si=zldoP3BpzK6mUzDc check out his YT shorts. Example after example of terrible def…
It's shocking how poorly built these houses are. No insulation, broken roof trusses, gas leaks, concrete property walls falling over.
It's not like houses were always perfect in the past though. My 1953 house has construction debris mixed in to the concrete foundation in the corner of the garage, where I assume they ran out of concrete, and knots in the roof planks patched with garbage as well.