The Changing Definition of Affordability

Once upon a time, affordability was based upon the simple cost per square foot of a structure. Now, the definition is as reliant upon the associated costs of operation.

To further complicate that analysis, at MIR we spend money on experimental building and community programs because that is part of our mission. Therefore it’s even harder to determine that true cost of operations. We try to establish a baseline operating cost for budgeting purposes, and pretend all we are doing is building houses at the lowest possible operating cost. Then we layer on the additional program costs. There’s also the issue of scale, and we are constantly evaluating how many homes we can build at a time without needing additional operations support.