Housing costs in Latin America and the Caribbean: Almost two-thirds of the sales price of a new private dwelling in cities in Latin America and the Caribbean can be attributed to construction costs, according to "Room for Development: Housing Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean", the latest edition of the IDB's flagship publication Development in the Americas. Materials alone account for nearly 40 percent of the total cost and labor for another 22 percent. Reducing these costs would go a long way to make formal housing more affordable to the estimated 210 million of people in the region who today live in informal settlements, such as slums.