Housing
Innovation
Affordable Housing Per-Unit Hard Construction Cost (inflation adjusted)
Based on Annual Reports from the Washington State Housing Finance Commission to the State Legislature
Number of Factory-Built Housing Manufacturing Jobs in WA
(Work in Progress)
Key Points
• Innovation means changing how housing gets built through factory built and modular construction.
• Conventional construction productivity has stagnated for decades while affordable housing per-unit costs have roughly doubled.
• Factory built methods tie housing policy to economic development, keeping manufacturing jobs in-state.
• Goal: real per-unit hard construction costs declining over time, alongside growth in WA-based factory built manufacturing jobs.
What is it?
Innovation means changing how housing actually gets built, not just what gets built. This priority focuses on construction methods like factory built and modular housing that can deliver units faster and at lower real cost than conventional stick built construction, while also creating a manufacturing base of skilled jobs within Washington State.
Why Innovation Matters
Construction costs are one of the most stubborn drivers of housing unaffordability, and conventional construction methods have not improved productivity at anywhere near the rate of other industries over the past several decades. Factory built methods offer a real path to bending that cost curve, since controlled manufacturing environments allow for efficiencies that an outdoor job site cannot. This priority also ties housing policy directly to economic development, since a WA based manufacturing industry for factory built housing keeps the jobs and economic benefit of solving the housing crisis inside the state rather than exporting it.
Where We Want to Be
The goal is for real per-unit hard construction costs to decline over time rather than continuing to climb faster than inflation, with factory built methods playing a central role in making that possible. Alongside that, the goal is meaningful growth in the number of factory built housing manufacturing jobs based in Washington State, building an industry that does not currently exist at scale. The vision is a housing production system where lower cost and more jobs are not in tension with each other, where building housing faster and cheaper also means building a stronger in-state manufacturing economy.