Obveeus
11/12/2012 5:20:00 PM
"Mason Barge" <masonbarge@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:57:56 -0700, anim8rFSK <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> Rich <none@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>
>>> ABC news was crowing on about the damage.
>>>
>>> 1700 homes partially or fully destroyed. Ok, lets say you rebuild them
>>> all, from the ground up. The land is already paid for so we are just
>>> talking about rebuilding the house.
>>>
>>> 1700 x $125,000/ea = $212,000,000 So WHERE do these figures bandied
>>> about
>>> by the media come from? $20 billion, $40 billion? Sounds like a
>>> MASSIVE
>>> fraud.
>>
>>Where do you come up with $125k to build a house?
>
> At $100 per square foot, for most of the houses I saw, probably more like
> $200k, plus at least 10% extra for cleanup.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the cost to build should be
significantly lower than the 'retail price' for housing. If housing is
going for $100/sqft in Atlanta it probably costs $50/sqft to build.
Supplies might cost somewhat more in the Northeast, but for the most part
the supply cost is probably 20% or less higher (labor might be double) while
the price per square foot is somewhat astronomically higher. It really
should not cost $2,000,000 to build a home in Northern Nrew Jersey when the
same exact home would only cost $100,000 to build in Georgia.
> But there will be major expense in clearing and repaving roads and
> improvements (sewer, water, power).
Yep...and all the business office space which was not counted in the bad
guestimate that started this thread.
> It goes slowly and is hard to do. My sister got caught in the brunt of
> Andrew in 1992 and words cannot express the devastation. With all the
> street signs gone, all the trees gone, houses gone or ruined, and street
> impassable, you couldn't even tell where you were. My brother in law got
> lost three blocks from his house.
Which brings up another point: with all the rightwing propaganda about
places where the power is not back on, there are a lot of places where it
very much should not be turned back on. Some neighborhoods were destroyed
(houses burning to the ground or washed off of foundations and places that
were underwater for many days) and the power should stay off (except for
re-construction) in those areas even after the mainline utilities are
restored.