You’re right Dougie, it does include the land but he’s not saying the price of the land is going up. Let’s parse it again with an eye toward change and rate of change. Remember, the context of the quote is about affordable housing.
In addition to astronomical land prices, soaring builder insurance costs and accelerating governmental exactions, this price-shaving strategy also faces the headwind of sharply rising construction costs…
Let’s face it, land costs have been astronomical in So. Cal. for a while. He’s saying nothing about them becoming more astronomical. It’s a static term in this context.
For all of his other costs, he makes it abundantly clear that they are rising very quickly. If the land prices were also rising, I think he would have been more explicit in saying so.
