Reply #25: Based on my experience with the local Habitat: [View All]

(1) Rehab can be a lot harder than new construction. The group I used to volunteer with regularly did some rehab work, and it wasn't always fun
(2) Defaults aren't common. I know one place, that I worked on, was trashed by the inhabitants, who stopped paying. Habitat repo'd and rehabbed and then put another family in it. There's a fairly rigorous selection process, and most people are happy to get a home with a reasonable payment. Moreover, the folk getting the house have to do some work on it before taking possession, so there's a buy-in aspect
(3) I worked with a group that built in some of the worst neighborhoods in town. The game was to improve the neighborhoods. One neighborhood I once worked in was mostly condemned properties and crackhouses; the street we were building on had the highest murder rate in town. At that time, the Habitat houses were the best houses in a bad neighborhood, but then the neighborhood turned around and gradually gentrified; now the Habitat houses are the low-end houses in a good neighborhood. So property values have gone up, and I expect the values of the modest little Habitat houses climbed with the others
(4) When I last asked this question, property was usually the most expensive part of the puzzle and was usually donated. Much of the construction material was purchased, but not all: we often used old donated paint, for example, for undercoat