The places driving the price increase are generally move-in ready, I know lots of investors have found places that need work on the MLS, or found off-market deals by pounding the pavement and working the phones after they've targeted a community/area to invest in. 

What I'm gonna do is allow the 85 year old lady to continue using the driveway across my yard, under the form of  a revocable license, up until such time that she no longer occupies the residence / or the deed transfers to a third party (probably a trust to her kids in this instance, or maybe an unrelated 3rd party buyer), at which point the liscense will be revoked and I will remove the improvements (asphalt) and restore the benefit of green space to my property.Perhaps more likely---- the neighbor ---- or the eventual 3rd party buyer---- will want the benefit of that driveway so that they can access their house (other than the public street out front with no parking) and I'd imagine they'd either A) buy my property from me or B) pay for a lifetime easement to be able to continue to use the drive for access to their house.      

I put up a 30x170 in 2019 and I saw a 22% increase per sq.ft. on the building package.All of my other costs stayed relatively stable, and asphalt actually went down some.

.- In the City where we are building, they give an option of 7 inches of Asphalt or Concrete; or 4 inches of Asphalt or Concrete over 6 inches of rock base.

-Coefficient of Expansion and heat transfer, shade exterior concrete so it doesn’t transfer the heat or cold into the building pad.Road surface/footing requirements- rock or concrete/asphalt.

Off the top of my head expenses that some landlords have and others don’t...Snow removal, lawn maintenance, semi annual house/fence painting, insurance and property taxes both vary WIDELY, replace asphalt roof every 10 years or tile “never”, seal/replace asphalt driveways, is there an Hoa?

Easy answer: go with asphalt instead of concrete.

Example if you have asphalt shingles and replacement is $10k (you may have tile with longer life and higher cost so works out to be close to same) at 20 years is $500/year or just over $40/month.  

I have five years experience but the contractors I work for all have over ten years in the fields of dry wall, stucco, asphalt and paint. we aim to bid lower then many not because of the quality but because we are eagered to show  the good work we provide. 

And then I need additional crews if replacement concrete or asphalt is involved.