LA multifamily housing: obstacles to the adoption of off-site construction as a method of increasing production.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20350265

Los Angeles Metro, like many other U.S. metropolitan regions, currently suffers from a shortage of housing and a lack of housing affordability. The application of off-site construction (OSC), an industrialized production method, has been recognized as one potential solution to these problems, but adoption has remained low, despite a consensus opinion that this means of housing delivery has the potential to address both issues facing the region. This dissertation has examined the obstacles to the adoption of OSC in Los Angeles through the theoretical framework of oligopoly theory, a current macro-economic framework that offers an explanation as to why key housing production actors might be motivated to limit the supply of housing during a housing shortage. This theory was tested in the Los Angeles Metro market using qualitative data collected from the top-6 most prolific incumbent multifamily landlords. Findings include persuasive data that disqualify oligopoly as a viable theoretical framework within which to understand OSC's poor adoption or the current housing shortage and affordability crisis in the Los Angeles Metro region. This study is the first to examine OSC through the lens of the housing crisis as an economic market failure and contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the obstacles to the adoption of OSC. It examines the motives of the decisionmakers that set housing production levels by either exploiting OSC to boost production or by acting as a bottleneck impediment to OSC housing production in the LA Metro area--Author's abstract