Why This Company is Building Thousands of Concrete Homes

I’m in Ohio and the housing market here over the last 7-8 years is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Homes that were bought for $130K in 2015 are now being sold for $590k. I’m talking about tiny, disgusting, poorly built 950 square foot shit boxes in quiet mediocre neighborhoods. Then you’ve got Better, average sized homes in nicer neighborhoods that were $300K+ 10 years ago selling for $750k+ now. Wild times.

My grandparents house in the Dominican Republic is made of concrete and reinforced with railroad tracks. The house was built by my grandfather who was a home builder and also clad the exterior of the home with beautiful stone. The house is now 65yrs old and has never been damaged by a hurricane. The structure is solid and blows my 1950s US built home away.

Thanks for continuing updates I'd rather trade the stock market as it's more profitable. I make an average of $34,500 per week even though I barely trade myself.

I live in Texas and would TOTALLY buy a concrete home TODAY! My friend's dad (an engineer) build a MASSIVE home for him and his entire family in the Philippines because of the storms and hurricanes. A few years after it was complete a massive storm came through leaving only a few homes and his still standing. Because he built it so big he was able to help a lot of his friends and neighbors, and it stayed cool(ish) when the power was out.

The best house I ever owned was a 1932 concrete home built by Eastman Kodak in a suburb of Rochester NY. They were built for Kodak managers. The walls and the floors were concrete. It was wonderfully quiet and kept the noise out. The walls were thicker than stick built houses which gave a comforting feeling of solidarity. These houses are still existing and in demand

In the Dominican Republic, the overwhelming majority of new home constructions are in concrete and has been for more than 4 decades. They’re not prefabricated like this either which makes the integrity of the structure even stronger. It’s crazy to think that it’s taken America this long to “catch up” especially in warmer climates.

Back in the day, when I purchased my first home to live-in; that was Miami in the early 1990s, first mortgages with rates of 8 to 9% and 9% to 10% were typical. People will have to accept the possibility that we won't ever return to 3%. If sellers must sell, home prices will have to decline, and lower evaluations will follow. Pretty sure I'm not alone in my chain of thoughts.

FINALLY!!! It should be done 50 years ago! Most of the countries building houses of breck, stone and concrete.

Concrete houses aren’t a new concept everywhere else in the world but the built in factory side is unique

This was really informative Shelby. Good job! I think this is the answer in areas where weather and fire is destroying houses all the time.

I live in a NW suburb of Chicago. My ranch tract/spec home was built in 2003. The walls (all 9’ high) and trusses were all made in a factory. When assembling it took one day to put all the walls together and another day to assemble the trusses and sheeting for the roof. It took 1 1/2 days to put on conventional shingle roofing. It took one day to insulate and install drywall (all sheets were 4 1/2’ x 12’ long, ceilings and exterior walls were 5/8”, interior walls were 1/2”). This home was started in March and finished in May. It is 2240sqft with a full basement, 3 car garage, 3 full baths, vaulted ceiling in entry/family room and has 2 large masonry brick fireplaces. I’ve had nearly no problems with drywall cracking, etc. in 20 years. The home is very livable with virtually no problems. In Poland they build homes mostly of concrete. There is virtually no commercial wood. Years ago even the windows were made on site with wood that was cut down by the owner and dried outside for 2-3 years. Doors were made the same way. The last 20 years they have imported great windows, doors and even heating/water furnaces that are very efficient from Germany, etc. Many homes are built of clay, concrete, or concrete blocks, depending what is made locally. All floors are concrete, even interior walls are made of similar concrete/clay products. Most roofs are concrete or clay fired shingles on a wooden structure holding it in place.

As someone who grew up in North American suburbia but has lived abroad for the last decade or so, it's weird to visit the US and see all the wood-constructed, wildly energy-inefficient homes that I grew up around. Concrete is the jam. It's structurally solid, holds heat and cold well, provides actual privacy when you close a door to another room.

It is fantastic to see that finally they indeed are building in concrete! And even in a green way of producing it ! So great to see ! I am from Europe and have lived in North America for 50 years and always wonder why our houses are so flimsy here ! Everything i lived in when I was a kid , was solid ! And not like cardboard! Happy to hear because they are so much more durable!

In Europe, concrete construction is the norm. Here in the USA and Canada, stick-built is the rule because we have huge forests and wood is environmentally renewable and lends itself to being built however you want it. Stick is increasingly getting more expensive and that’s where a company like Onyx enters the picture. Its revolutionized how homes are made and built and you get the land and the home, which is one less hassle for a lot of people. Thanks for the video! 😊

"Houses that people actually want to live in". Cool. When are they going to make houses people actually can afford?

The way to end inflation is to end the counterfeiting. Money creation without product creation is inflation. Make investments to survive.

I live in Kenya, Africa. 99% of our homes are built by stone harnessed by concrete and steel for the pillars and roofs, but done on site. Homes rarely fall unless its due to construction issues. It's interesting that its becoming more popular in the states. Also land is quite affordable, at a really posh estate, for $400,000 you can get a palatial home plus land. In the countryside you can get over 50 acres of land.

I would LOVE a concrete home. In fact that's what I want badly. Poured concrete looks amazing and is great for insulation. Bring these to Las Vegas!

Here in Northern California, the fire insurance is $9000 per year, and a lot of insurance companies have decided to leave California. I work for a masonry company that builds state jails.. so brick walls and tilt-up concrete is what I do every day. I would love one of these, but small.. like 1,000sqft small.

I used to live in a town house. All 50 bathrooms had to be renewed. We found a company that did bathrooms for ships. They mounted tiles, sinks, cupboards and everything in a factory on 3 feet wide steel plates, with all wires, conduits etc on the back. You could do just about any configuration you wanted with different sections of plates. So did you want bathtub, shower, two sinks etc it was just a matter of ordering different sections. It took 1 week to completely remove the old bathroom and one week to install the new bathroom. That was so quick, and except that the floor was raised a bit to make room for plumbing (it was a step down before and now the floor was level with the rest of the house), you would never notice that you just got a steel box installed in the middle of the house. It was much cheaper than regular bathroom, because of the highly reduced manual labour, and that everything was done on an assembly line and as these pre fabricated components.