Habitat for Humanity Homes

I've followed Habitat for Humanity for a while. Their "direct action" approach to building affordable homes with volunteer assistance certainly has its heart in the right place.

But what interested me in the blog post was this quote...

"We are currently investigating ways for Habitat to acquire foreclosed properties, rehab them and sell them to families. The challenge is that at the moment, it is still more expensive to buy existing homes for rehab than it is to buy dirt and build new, high quality homes."

The statement raises several issues of which three in particular struck me.

Firstly: the difference between the UK property market - where the lack of availability of "Dirt" to build on, and therefore its price, is key - and much of the US property market.

Secondly: the scale of the staggering waste of resources implicit in the wave of US foreclosures and effective abandonment of property.

Thirdly: what the statement implies in relation to realisations by Banks who foreclose, and therefore the true value of their property "assets"....