Why factory-built housing hasn't taken off

Industrial Policy for Housing Policy is a new blueprint for tackling the housing crisis from Arpit Gupta and Steve Teles. One bit I particularly liked was the five-part diagnosis of why factory-built housing has failed to really take off in a sustainable way: (1) housing’s boom-and-bust cycle makes it hard for large investments into factory production to survive lean times, especially because (2) the government has not traditionally moved in to smooth fluctuations; (3) a patchwork of different regulations makes it hard for learning by doing to get as much traction, (4) it’s expensive to transport housing components away from factories, and (5) it’s hard to assemble lots of little (separate) parcels into a contiguous area that can support dense new buildings. The diagnosis suggests several possible fixes and Gupta and Teles have a bunch of other ideas about how to overcome these barriers.