I live in a VHCOL coast (the Bay Area) and am trying to add onto my house. Contractors are quoting broadly between $500-$1000 per square feet for an addition, for an ADU, or for a new house. We need both YIMBY procedure reforms and also somehow to bring down construction costs. I’m hopeful prefab/modular can help.
A big part of that is contractors have to pay Bay Area costs to operate. Other parts of the country $1000 a square is strictly "brand new really nice mansion" territory.
There's so much demand for housing and construction in the Bay Area, that with the stroke of a pen (figuratively), you could increase building activity by 100x. That would create a huge price spike at first, but construction businesses would expand and others would move to the area, more housing would be available for workers outside of the highest income bands, which would increase supply. It would be a virtuous cycle that could continue for quite a while.
