3-D printed homes of the future built by robots are being snapped up in Texas for $600,000
In early 2024, Daniella Glaeze and her husband were under contract to buy a new, traditional three-bed, two-bath home on the northern shore of Lave Travis, 20 miles outside of Austin, Tex.“Nice and simple,” Glaeze said.Then they saw a social media post about some 3D-printed homes 15 minutes away in Georgetown.The Glaezes, who both work in tech, decided to pay a visit and tour Wolf Ranch, the world’s largest community of 3D-printed homes.
They fell in love with the preciseness of the layer-patterned walls and the sturdiness of the foundation, which they believed would hold up well in potential floods.“We almost couldn’t believe what we were looking at,” Glaeze said. The following month, she and her husband were moving in.There are only several hundred 3D-printed homes in America today — making up less than .0001% of the housing market — but that number is steadily growing.Globally, the market for 3D-printed homes was valued at about $60 million in 2024 and is estimated to reach over $4.5 billion by 2033. Young buyers like the Glaezes are drawn to home ownership without the heavy maintenance of a traditional home.
Plus there’s the energy efficiency.Most of the world’s 3D-printed homes, like those at Wolf Ranch, are made out of a concrete-based formula.
Compared to drywall, sheetrock or wood, the material is highly effective at keeping internal temperatures stable. Wolf Ranch’s 100 homes were constructed by ICON, the world’s leading 3D home printer.In addition to the 270 houses the company has printed in the US and Mexico, ICON has also built barracks at Fort Bliss for the Department of War and is working with NASA to design robots that can print infrastructure on the moon. And that’s just the beginning.
This October, the company raised $200 million from BlackRock and Baillie Gifford.For Glaeze and her husband, the four-bedroom home they settled into was priced similarly to the traditionally constructed home they were previously und...