“We have a serious housing shortage, here, though (Western North Dakota).”
Oil boom country? Bakken?
If the counties and cities would fast-track approvals, the housing could be put up very quickly, somewhat conventional in style.
I read last week about fairly simple camp style housing.
It is also worth a quick study of the boom town phenomenon.
In the early 80s a few locations in Colorado and Wyoming boomed, on the prospect of full scale development of oil shale.
Not to mention gold, silver, copper, uranium booms around the west.
My real estate office is housed in a 1920s building, which was first a hotel/brothel for the oil boom here at that time.
Although mancamps, hotels, mobile homes, campgrounds and houses have been springing up like mushrooms after a rain, the builders can't keep up with demand, nor can the infrastructure. New hotels/motels are leased before completion by some of the larger service companies (Think Schlumberger and Halliburton, etc.).
Even the cell phone networks are stressed, and a half-dozen prefixes have been added in the last couple of years.
It is much the same all over the area, and there are pages of 'help wanted' ads yet.
Eight out of ten vehicles in the WalMart parking lot have out-of state plates.
You can fast-track all the approval you want, that still doesn't get the roof on or provide a place for the water to go when you flush.
We had an oil boom in the late '70s/early 80s, too, but that was nothing compared to this.