There was once a time — generally in the early 20th century — when some people used to order their new home from a catalogue.

You would pick the model you wanted and then all of the required materials, along with assembly instructions, would get mailed to you.

Mind you, this was never the most popular way to make a new home. According to Brian Potter, mail-order homes, even at their peak, represented less than 10% of all yearly housing starts in the US.

So arguably, it was never entirely successful as a model. Building a home is tough work, especially without fancy power tools.

Still, it’s interesting to think about its relative simplicity: “Here’s a bunch of raw building materials and some instructions. Go figure it out. It’s like an Ikea bookshelf, except it’s your entire house.”

Contrast this to what it takes to build new urban housing today. There is a litany of new barriers. It’s nowhere near as simple as ordering a kit of parts; so it’s no wonder housing is more expensive.

For more on “The Rise and Fall of the Mail-Order Home”, check out this recent post from Brian Potter’s Construction Physics newsletter.