Building a home in less than a week for a fraction of the cost may sound unrealistic. That’s why Sustainable Concrete Innovations, based in Wapakoneta, Ohio, held an open house this summer to allow industry professionals to tour the first completed 3D-printed home in the state.

“The longer I live, the less help is available,” company co-owner John Smoll said last month. “It seems like automation is really taking over, and we’re still building homes the way we have built them for centuries with 2-by-4s, a saw, and a lot of labor.”

Smoll calls the new technology a “game changer” as Ohio needs more than 270,000 new housing units to meet current demand. Due to the housing shortage, home values in Franklin County increased by nearly 40% during the triennial reappraisal last year.

“Now, instead of having a crew of four to six guys to build a house, two guys are printing the home,” Smoll said. “A lot of the people coming out of high school today are very familiar with electronics.”

Smoll said he was a skeptic at first about bringing the new product to Ohio’s housing market. His team borrowed a printer that could cost up to $1 million for the project and had to create a mixture of concrete that could hold up to the severe weather common in the Midwest. He said the 1,500-square-foot home, which includes three bedrooms and two bathrooms, is tornado and fire-resistant, and some rooms can be used as a storm shelter.

“We’ve not financed anything like that, never appraised one before,” said Drew Kantonen with Superior Credit Union in Lima, Ohio, after touring the printed home. “I think they’ve gone out on a limb a little bit and taken a chance because, right, no one is really familiar with 3D printing.”

One Columbus-based family traveled 90 miles to see the home for themselves.

“We need a yard. We need a space to let everyone be comfortable and free,” Shawn Austin said from his two-bedroom apartment while sitting next to his wife, holding his newborn, and giving commands to his German shepherd. “The price continues to rise in the housing market, but the quality is not matching the sticker price. That’s not a wise investment at all.”

Austin admits they’ve extended their plan to stay in the cramped apartment, even as rents continue to increase. They are now trying to save money to print their own home.

“The down payment in itself is like a wall,” Austin said. “It’s like a great wall.”

Smoll said the cost to construct the completed home in Wapakoneta came to $160 per square foot. He compares that to a traditionally built home that he estimates at $200 per square foot and calculates at least a 20% savings.

“I think that’s the flawed part. We’re all driven by profit,” Smoll said when asked if these savings would be passed on to a buyer, as 3D-printed homes are eligible for a 30-year fixed mortgage and can appraise similarly to a traditional build. “Our target is to try to build more affordable housing.”

Sustainable Concrete Innovations is now working with the Land Bank in Lima to print homes on empty urban lots.

He said increasing density in such areas and reducing home size could also drastically reduce costs.

“It’s literally possible to have a home that you own for the price of a car payment,” he said.

A Columbus developer is currently printing the first 3D-printed home in the Linden neighborhood on land he owns. The City of Columbus said no other permits have been pulled for other 3D-printing projects in the area. Meanwhile, other developers are starting to print more homes and businesses throughout the state.

When asked if opposition has been raised with claims that this new technology is taking construction jobs away, Smoll replied, “I’ve been in this business for over 30 years, and the reality is the jobs are already going away.”