society puts its efforts. They can, and frequently do, add a great burden on top of economic costs. Only by separating out the underlying real economics can we see the true effect of each policy affecting housing and understand how to alter such effects. Durability Once we can penetrate the barrier that financial thinking has put between us and understanding economic costs, we can examine the actual productivity of our various housing expenditures. Construction costs, for example, are largely unavoidable economic costs, and they appear irreducible. But what is important is not just the cost, but the number of years of housing we get from that cost. The longer a building lasts, the smaller are the economic costs per year or per generation. Durability of construction is the key to economic productivity of housing. Houses built to last 400 or 500 years can shelter 15 or more generations under their roofs before needing replacement. Each generation then has to replace only one-fifteenth of its housing, and expenditures on housing are 90% less than what they would be if new homes had to be built for each generation. Housing that lasts 400 years costs only a fraction more to build. In addition to dramatically lowering economic costs, its long life makes feasible the generosity of design that separates our shabby “low-cost" housing from ample, comfortable, and livable homes. During the "Dark Ages" in Europe, people built solid and comfortable houses, which are still in use today. Not having to replace their homes freed the labor and materials to build their soaring and beautiful cathedrals. Those Gothic cathedrals have already served more than 24 generations in their 800 years of use. Although the initial effort of their construction was great, their cost per generation has been far less than our shabbiest construction today, and they stand as a powerful challenge to our tradition of "economic" thinking. Although durable construction costs somewhat more initially, it costs much less in the long run. Clay tile, slate, lead, and a few other roofing materials, for example, have a several-hundred year life, compared to 20 years for standard asphalt shingles. The initial cost of a tile roof is about two and one-half times that of asphalt shingles. But the repeated replacement necessary for the shingle roof boosts its economic Cost over 200 years to four times that of clay tile. Over 300 years, shingles would cost six times as much as tile, and over 400 years, eight times as much as the lifetime roof! Actually increasing our economic expenditures on construction is to our advantage where it increases the durability and therefore the long-term economic benefit of the building. The value of housing durability means more than just "build to last." It shows the importance of looking at how we lose as well as how we build housing. War, fires, changes in land-use patterns, tax policies that result in neglect and abandonment of housing are as important "loss-makers" as is poor construction. And the savings involved in reuse of housing underscores the high economic burden of additional housing required by population growth and relocation. March/April 1984 RAIN Page 13 Scarcity From an economic viewpoint, there is a fundamental difference between the cost of new and older housing. For an older house, the economic cost has been largely paid, and what remains is only the cost of operation and maintenance needed to keep it habitable and comfortable. For a new house the economic cost is the full cost of construction. The price of used houses should therefore be far less than for new ones, and this has been true when there has been a surplus rather than a scarcity of housing available. Today, however, the opposite is true, with the monetary price of used houses paralleling that of new ones because of a combination of real and artificial scarcity. Real scarcity arises from a growing population and 4 ----------- — —-I J iMt=e<k«.-rEoc.Tuefc I * \O,0CO. r_FUEMl*)+l^S -4 7,see. '70,006. 4^Hc,eoo. REACTOR ^=VfSS> PiacB. Fig.l MA4NT. pract dO flO , ■■ \ Jr.-t ,1 tireriKAE oruou^iM^ Tom Bender
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