A common refrain in the national “conversation” about the affordable housing crisis, or shortage, is that development of new multi-family rentals is, well, costly … even unaffordable, in some cases.

One standard cost we’ve seen bandied about is $200,000 per unit. That’s the figure set out in the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust’s treatise on this topic, “Why does it cost so much to construct affordable housing?”

The other day we stumbled across an article about a developer in Portland, Ore., who operates on a different model — tight scheduling, efficiency, no frills, and remarkably, all-private financing — without public subsidies. The result: a unit cost of around $70,000. Here’s a glimpse:

We can’t vouch for the economics of this, but the website of the developer — Home First Development — links to an article, “Building affordable units for less,” that offers a thumbnail accounting of the approach taken with a 27-unit apartment complex built for $1.89 million. This development is in east Portland, a few miles from downtown, so we presume the land was less costly than for a comparable site close in.

Another, more recent development, also in east Portland, comprises 78 one- and two-bedroom units that rent for $395 to $775 a month, according to the news story that sparked our interest. The cost of building that project? $5 million.

In each case, the developer began by estimating how much low-income tenants (e.g., $24,000 a year) could afford to pay for housing, then worked through the financing with that constraint.

Might such a model be replicable? You be the judge.