<story><title>China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days</title><url>http://designtaxi.com/news/352814/China-Plans-To-Build-The-World-s-Tallest-Building-In-90-Days/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pulsenews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>joshuahedlund</author><text>My bias wants to make some remark about unions and/or regulations inhibiting construction innovation in the US, but I have no idea if that&apos;s actually true... is there progress being made in the US (faster construction? more prefab? etc) or does China&apos;s progress simply come with quality sacrifices that are pretty unacceptable in the US?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>netcan</author><text>If you want some explanation that probably fits with your biases, this might be responsible for some part :)&lt;p&gt;Warren Buffet, 2009 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2009ltr.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2009ltr.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The second reason that manufactured housing is troubled is specific to the industry: the punitive differential in mortgage rates between factory-built homes and site-built homes. Before you read further, let me underscore the obvious: Berkshire has a dog in this fight, and you should therefore assess the commentary that follows with special care. That warning made, however, let me explain why the rate differential causes problems for both large numbers of lower-income Americans and Clayton.&lt;p&gt;The residential mortgage market is shaped by government rules that are expressed by FHA, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Their lending standards are all-powerful because the mortgages they insure can typically be securitized and turned into what, in effect, is an obligation of the U.S. government. Currently buyers of conventional site-built homes who qualify for these guarantees can obtain a 30-year loan at about 5 1⁄4%. In addition, these are mortgages that have recently been purchased in massive amounts by the Federal Reserve, an action that also helped to keep rates at bargain-basement levels.&lt;p&gt;In contrast, very few factory-built homes qualify for agency-insured mortgages. Therefore, a meritorious buyer of a factory-built home must pay about 9% on his loan. For the all-cash buyer, Clayton’s homes offer terrific value. If the buyer needs mortgage financing, however – and, of course, most buyers do – the difference in financing costs too often negates the attractive price of a factory-built home.&lt;p&gt;..&lt;p&gt;We have tried to qualify more of our customers’ loans for treatment similar to those available on the
site-built product. So far we have had only token success&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>China Plans To Build The World’s Tallest Building In 90 Days</title><url>http://designtaxi.com/news/352814/China-Plans-To-Build-The-World-s-Tallest-Building-In-90-Days/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pulsenews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>joshuahedlund</author><text>My bias wants to make some remark about unions and/or regulations inhibiting construction innovation in the US, but I have no idea if that&apos;s actually true... is there progress being made in the US (faster construction? more prefab? etc) or does China&apos;s progress simply come with quality sacrifices that are pretty unacceptable in the US?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>_delirium</author><text>I think some credit has to be given to the Chinese for innovating in this area as well; it&apos;s not &lt;i&gt;just&lt;/i&gt; safety/quality corner-cutting, though there might be some of that. The article notes the much longer time it took Dubai to build its similarly sized building, and Dubai is not exactly known for worker-friendly labor laws or European/American levels of workplace-safety regulations.</text></comment>