According to recent polls, American voters under the age of 30 are more deeply concerned about one pressing issue above all others: housing affordability, ahead of hot-button topics like abortion and immigration, as well as looming concerns over local climate change. Across demographics, a significant proportion of individuals express concern about the escalating cost of living, with soaring housing prices and crippling rent burdens topping their list of anxieties. For the first time in recent memory, the cost of housing may play a significant role in the presidential election.
It’s hardly surprising that. Between the onset of the pandemic and early 2024, US dwelling prices surged a staggering 47 percent. Across broad stretches of the country, buying a home has become an unaffordable prospect even for those with modestly sized middle-class incomes.
Strict zoning guidelines, coupled with permitting delays, pose significant hurdles to swift construction, as do other well-known barriers such as nationwide NIMBY activism and a chronic shortage of skilled labor. Despite progress in various areas, a lesser-known issue persists: our lack of efficiency in construction, which appears to worsen with time. .
Driving through the drizzly autumn air on a gray early October morning, I collected a rental vehicle and headed to Devens, Massachusetts, with a specific destination in mind: a gap within the floor.
Since spinning out of MIT in 2018, Commonwealth Fusion Systems has secured over $2 billion in funding to support the development and construction of its primary commercial-scale fusion reactor. The goal is to implement the system effectively by December 31, 2026.
