An Over-Supply Of McMansions
The Wall Street Journal reports on the ‘McMansion glut.’ “The golden age of McMansions may be coming to an end. These oversized homes fueled much of the housing boom. But thanks to rising energy and mortgage costs, shrinking families and a growing number of retirement-age baby boomers set on downsizing, there are signs of an emerging glut.”
“Mickey and Jane Finn put their five-bedroom, 6,200-square-foot home in Leesburg, Va., on the market in April, but already they’ve cut the price to $899,900 from $1.1 million. Now, they’ve decided to put it up for auction. Down the street in their leafy subdivision, two similar-sized houses are also on the market, and around the corner, five more have for-sale signs.”
“The Finns, who paid $692,000 for the new house in 2002, recently retired and, with their two children grown, they’re eager to move to a place half the size. ‘We don’t need this big a house anymore — if we ever did,’ says Mr. Finn.”
“Since February, Kris and Ray Victory have been trying to sell their five-bedroom house in Brookville, N.Y.. The couple raised three children in the 8,000-square-foot home, but they say younger families seem turned off by its $1,000-a-month utility bills and $25,000 annual taxes. ‘Buyers tell us it’s too big,’ says Mrs. Victory. The couple recently shaved $200,000 off the $2.35 million price.”
“Already, the McMansion oversupply is acute in places like Loudoun County, Va. In the fast-growing area northwest of Washington, D.C., thousands of hulking, red-brick colonials sprouted over the past 10 years on quarter-acre lots that had been carved from farmland and woods. In May, 4,719 houses were for sale, more than three times the year-earlier level.”
“The number of sales dropped 39% to 484 in the month, and the number of days a home remained on the market lengthened to 70 from 14. ‘Sellers are dying out there,’ says local real-estate broker Michele Stash.”
“In Phoenix, David and Mary Mumme are selling their 4,938-square-foot house, partly because their oldest son is heading to college and partly because maintaining the house and yard takes about eight hours a week. They’re asking $1.8 million, about three times what they paid for it six years ago, because they saw nearby houses sell quickly for about $2 million last year.”
“But even though the house has 12-foot ceilings, marble countertops and skylights in the closets, no one has made an offer during the month it’s been on the market.”
“John and Barbara Fiore, both 54, had to slice $50,000 off their $900,000 price to move their 5,500-square-foot house in Warwick, N.Y. Ms. Fiore says she worried that no one would want her six-bedroom home while it sat on the market all last year, because today’s families are smaller. (The eventual buyer was a married doctor with three young children.)”
“The delay in selling ‘was scary,’ says Mrs. Fiore. The Fiores, who built the house 14 years ago, now live in a three-bedroom house nearby that’s less than half the size.”
“In one Loudoun subdivision, Tom Green, put his five-bedroom house on the market six months ago for $1 million so he and his wife could downsize to a $592,000 townhouse nearby. But his home had to compete with 38 others for sale in the neighborhood with four or more bedrooms. His 5,600-square-foot, five-bedroom house, which he bought new for $515,000 in 2000, didn’t get a nibble for months.”
“Finally, a relocating California family agreed to buy it if the Greens would..slash the price to $820,000. The Greens complied. The buyers say they were emboldened to make their demands when they saw how much the market had cooled since April 2005.”
OH THATS SO SAD
from this blog on 4/23: this is how I see the future for the McMansion! (sorry, link doesn’t seem to be working anymore)
And a reader sent in this example (http://www.avpress.com/n/23/0423_s2.hts) of a homebuilder taking care of business in Antelope Valley. “Gang problems, open drug sales and threats from rowdy neighbors aren’t part of the lifestyle residents anticipated when they purchased large new homes in west Lancaster. The residents say the company sold many homes in the neighborhood to investors, who rented them out to problem tenants or left them vacant, with tall weeds filling the yard.”
“It was clearly not what the home buyers paying premium prices expected. ‘We bought what was billed as a family-friendly subdivision, and that is not what they delivered,’ Christopher Yaussy said. ‘They have stuck homeowners into investment hell.’”
“Not long after moving in last spring, problems began, things one wouldn’t expect in a move-up neighborhood where homes originally sold for between $325,000 and $360,000, and now go for $100,000 more than that.”
“A D.R. Horton development company sales manager said the company has the right to sell their homes ‘to whoever we want.’ ‘It’s not the builder’s job to keep things safe,’ said Jim Blake, a VP of sales and marketing. ‘We sell homes. We sell them to legitimate buyers. A builder can’t keep Lancaster safe.’”
“In the company’s Desert Sunsets tract, where homes range from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet, neighbors relate accounts of groups of young men milling around in the street, not moving aside for passing vehicles, instead making obscene gestures and slapping the vehicles.”
“What is most aggravating to the Yaussys is that they were directed to sign owner-occupancy contracts promising they would live in the home as their principal residence for one year or pay a penalty of 10% of the base purchase price. Using real estate records, the Yaussys estimate that more than 40% of the homes in their neighborhood were sold to buyers who had no plans of living in the tract.”
“Six months after the homes were ready for occupants, many still sat empty, with knee-high weeds, dead lawns and lack of window coverings giving away their vacant status. One resident said when he was considering a purchase, he specifically asked sales agents if the company sold to investors and was assured that only owners would occupy the homes. Other residents say they were asked if they wanted to buy an extra home as an investment.”
“In recent months, Yaussy said, a number of the homes have been put up for sale, including homes that were occupied by problematic tenants.”
It really is sad how greedy people are.
“In Phoenix, David and Mary Mumme are selling their 4,938-square-foot house, partly because their oldest son is heading to college and partly because maintaining the house and yard takes about eight hours a week. They’re asking $1.8 million, about three times what they paid for it six years ago, because they saw nearby houses sell quickly for about $2 million last year.”
Greedy, stupid and precisely why prices coninued to go up, up, up. Every time a prospective sellers neighbor sold a house, they raised their own imaginary entitlement substantially, salivating with delicious dollar signs in their eyes and minds, their profits already counted and spent. My only satisfaction would be to see these people hold out to long, have the bottom completely fall out, only to sell for LESS than what they paid, and exit the neighborhood sheepishly with their tails between their legs learning a hard lesson. Or, alternatively, squandering whatever profits they do make on bad investments and depreciating goods. These people exemplify what is wrong with our country. Shame on them and their sick minds.
My theory is the lessons learned from this time in history will probably be burned into people’s minds for a long time. Many on this blog refer to parents or grandparents from the depression era still being frugal long past the time they needed to be to live comfortably. I think we’re headed for those kinds of lessons soon and those who were burned are going to warn would-be investor friends to NEVER buy RE. That’d probably be about the best time to buy.
I’m a bit surprised at how big these places are. My impression is that 3500 sq ft and up is McMansion territory and I consider that pretty big. How do you go about cleaning something that big? Building one of those in New Hampshire would cost you a pretty eagle in heating and cooling costs too.
Michael-
I am not a McMansion owner. I live in a std 2200 foot colonial which is enough for me. But we’re sort of the underclass here as I’d say 3500-4000 is considered average with many homes 5000 -10000. Finding a good housecleaner appears to be part of the cache of living here. (I’m still doing my own scrubbing. In fact we are a very odd sight here as we do all our own house repair too.)
I hear conversations about pellet stoves being purchased to support the main system. I believe $1000/mo to heat in the winter is not uncommon. For comparison, I pay about $180/mo and that’s with a roof that is probably underinsulated.
I do believe many here do earn/have money to cover that budget. There are a lot of old money families and dual (high) income professionals who call our place home. It is a very highly educated area. Still I can’t help but think that many are just posers and wanna be’s and as Buffet says (paraphrased) when the tide goes out, that’s when you get to see who’s swimming naked.
No way. People have lost any capacity to remember anything. The system is made like that. Keep ‘em real dumb. Too much Big Mac’s kills brain cells and makes you real stupid. They should make also a film on US real estate.
They could call it “Supersize me. PART II: The big ugly house of the big american slob that ate too much Big Mac’s.”
The guy who invented the term “McManshions” is a genius.
So what happens when no one wants to buy these anymore? Do they knock them down and build back up the cozy little ranchers, capes, and split levels that they bulldozed in the first place?
They’ll have to knock them down in 20 years when the shoddy construction and high cost of heat (and air conditioning!) don’t justify the upkeep.
BuyMoreHouses.com
I have an idea about what MIGHT happen to these giant houses. Instead of being knocked down (which could happen), they may (pending on how desperate the local town becomes) get re-zoned as multiple family dwellings. Think about it. A 5000 SF monster, split in half or even split into three smaller 2 bedroom dwellings. Hell the 3 car garage could be converted into a 1 bedroom apartment!
The exterior stays the same, but ‘do it yourself’ types could gut the hell out of the place and add kitchens and bathrooms. I use to be an architect (was tired of being poor) and the drainage systems installed in these places can easily support the extra demand.
Not saying this would be a good or bad thing, but this change in use has happened before. Old school Victorian homes were built for multiple family members to live in one house. Most of those places have been split apart into smaller condos or apartments years ago…
Exactly. I live in New York City, and the outer boros are loaded with old Victorian homes that were built as large single family homes for the upper middle class. Over the last 50 years untold thousands of them have been split up and turned in to multiple dwellings, both legally and illegally. Lately, the trend has been to bulldoze them and build condos out to the lot lines. That market will crash though as they are getting too expensive, even for NYC (like 450K for 800 sq. ft. 2 bedrooms!)
i thought new yorkers are paid much more than us from southern california to afford those prices. in fact in term of affordability new yorkers are better of than those from san diego.
Maybe more affordable for white collar workers on the island of manhattan - but NYC is a vast city with a huge older middle class in the outer boros that has been exiting and a huge immigrant population taking their place. NYC is always attractive to immigrants because there is an enormous entreched social services network here (free food & section 8 housing all around! whoopee!) that self sustains by forming a gigantic democratic voting bloc. This voting bloc makes sure that at the legislative level, the free ride is never taken away. Granted, the homeowners in the outerboros voted en masse for Giuliani who finally saved the city by getting tough on crime and lowering the welfare rolls, but this just made the city ultimately more attractive for the bubble.
The immigrant population has been partly supporting the price increases here because they are willing to cut up large homes into apartments or stack up extended family into the homes that don’t get cut up. It doesn’t mean NYC is more affordable, it just means that everyone is cramming into smaller and smaller spaces. The house pricing and tax burden in New York has basically exterminated the middle class. This is why I think the glut of 450K condos in the outerboros is a sign of the downside. No middle class can afford them, and the rich don’t want to live way out in Brooklyn of Queens in a shoebox.
I have many 30-40 ush friends who have nice paying jobs (i’m talking 50-80K a year) in the city who rent in the outer boros but cannot afford to even but a one bedroom co-op. I was fortunate enough to buy in 2001 before things got really crazy.
If it keeps going this way, NYC will ultimately end up with only the rich and poor.
1) Those who bought McMansions at prices which reflected bubble premiums would be hosed by neighboring homes which were split into multifamily housing, as the riff-raff which would move in to the lower class housing would have a bad effect on property prices (higher crime, burst illusion of exclusivity, etc.)
2) The waste of construction labor and materials on building an oversupply of supersized behemoths would continue as further resources were drained by the apartmentization effort.
3) The private gain to the repartmentizers would probably be more than offset by the loss of equity to the neighbors who kept their SFR status.
In light of the above, I am guessing that many castle tracts were zoned to make apartmentization illegal. Can anyone who knows confirm this?
When a neighborhood of McMansions faces condemnation due to neglect, expect to see some rezoning.
More work for lawyers — Yeah!
The demand for more and more space in a home is just astounding to me. The original developments in Levittown were 650 square feet in the 50’s. Now two or three member families are living in houses ten times as large.
Ya gotta have that 400 square foot area to fold laundry properly ya know. Don’t forget the marble countertops for people to put their clothes piles down on. (Remember when laundry was done in unfinished basements?)
Is it possible to McDuplex a McMansion?
It’s already been done - check out some of these pictures. Check out pictures from developments around DC - #5 is a McMansion quadplex!
http://ustimes.us/housing_photos.htm
To be fair though - #5 was built as townhouses disguised as McMansions - They were featured in NY tImes Magazine article about builders being given variances to build affordable housing in their McMansion ‘hoods. Of course there was much speculation about what these “undesirable” neighbors would do to the value of the real McMansions that were built around them.
If you drive through places like Springfield, Virginia, you see this gaudy, vulgar, $2 million McMansions with Mercedes and BMWs in the yard, parked cheek-by-jowl next to delapidated old shotguns shacks on half-acre lots. Surreal….
Yeah, that is happening in the Northwest too!! McMansions sprawled out on 1-5 acre plots in rural Kitsap County with methed out neighbors living in a trailer next door. Then the yuppies get upset when their house is burglurized. Never in my life have I seen such an obvious distinction between the “haves and have nots” as here in the Northwest. It is really sad. The distribution of wealth or lack thereof is shocking. The state of the union is not so good I am afraid…
Yeah, that is happening in the Northwest too!! McMansions sprawled out on 1-5 acre plots in rural Kitsap County with methed out neighbors living in a trailer next door. Then the yuppies get upset when their house is burglurized.
Having swallowed no end of right wing platitudes (”greed is good,” “no social compact,” “life’s unfair,” etc.), the McMansioneers will always be a little surprised when agents of a broken, neglected society come calling to collect the tax that our political system won’t! Then again, given the financial gloom in McMansionville, maybe the folks in the trailer next door should buy better locks, too.
There needs to be a happy medium here. The only thing I wanted for my kids was a little green grass without having to live in an old moldy house. What we found in the new homes was generally patio-style homes with no yard. To get a yard and a newer home, a relative McMansion is the choice.
I agree - but i’ll take 2000 - 2500 sq. feet - enough for kitchen. living, dining, 4 bedrooms and a home office. How can you keep 5000 sq. feet clean? My wife is Mrs. Clean and I know I don’t want to spend my whole life dusting a monstrous house - I want to sit on my porch and kick a few back in my downtime!
Its the greatest status symbol to have a huge house.Then you get to brag about your maid, landscaper and all that good stuff. It is all a show of what is really important. I live within my means and just try to be consistent over long time periods.
Then you get to brag about your maid, landscaper
and all that good stuff.
If you really want to get them really PO’d, tell them that your
don’t have a maid, landscaper,
etc, that your house is paid off, that you clip
coupons, that you drive a old truck, that you save
80%+ of your paycheck, that you have no debt,
at that your net worth is multi-seven figures.
On top of that you are totally stress free, can do what
you damn well please, and could care less if the company
if work for shuts its doors tommorrow..
Don’t do that; people will think you’re wierd and you won’t have too many friends.
When I inform people that I won’t be part of the rat-race they just look at me like they cannot fathom not spending 105% of take-home pay on tinkets and junk to keep up with the Joneses’
Actually, I was excommunicated from the neighborhood
long ago. Then minimum requirement to remain
in good standing is a Beemer or Lexii. If you
drive a Chevy truck, you aren’t taken to kindly
in these parts.. (Irvine,Orange County, Ca)
Comment by arizonadude
2006-06-16 06:38:25
Its the greatest status symbol to have a huge house.Then you get to brag about your maid, landscaper and all that good stuff. It is all a show of what is really important. I live within my means and just try to be consistent over long time periods.
Yeah but the ultimate is having servants who do nothing!
Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class (Chapter III: Conspicuous Leisure): “If the pecuniary situation of the master permits it, the development of a special class of personal or body servants is also furthered by the very grave importance which comes to attach to this personal service… These specialized servants are useful more for show than for service actually performed… There results, therefore, a constantly increasing differentiation and multiplication of domestic and body servants, along with a concomitant progressive exemption of such servants from productive labour. By virtue of their serving as evidence of ability to pay, the office of such domestics regularly tends to include continually fewer duties, and their service tends in the end to become nominal only.. So that the utility of these comes to consist, in great part, in their conspicuous exemption from productive labour and in the evidence which this exemption affords of their master’s wealth and power… After some considerable advance has been made in the practice of employing a special corps of servants for the performance of a conspicuous leisure in this manner, men begin to be preferred above women for services that bring them obtrusively into view… In this way, then, there arises a subsidiary or derivative leisure class, whose office is the performance of a vicarious leisure for the behoof of the reputability of the primary or legitimate leisure class… The possession and maintenance of slaves employed in the production of goods argues wealth and prowess, but the maintenance of servants who produce nothing argues still higher wealth and position. Under this principle there arises a class of servants, the more numerous the better, whose sole office is fatuously to wait upon the person of their owner, and so to put in evidence his ability unproductively to consume a large amount of service. There supervenes a division of labour among the servants or dependents whose life is spent in maintaining the honour of the gentleman of leisure. So that, while one group produces goods for him, another group… consumes for him in conspicuous leisure; thereby putting in evidence his ability to sustain large pecuniary damage without impairing his superior opulence.”
Wouldn’t that also describe the large bureocracy that large centralized governments tend to accumulate?
Pinch, you beat me to it!
This sounds *exactly* like a government operation.
Or like large corporations prior to the downsizing craze.
Even if you are a frugal, penny pincher, chances are you’re driving a nicer car than Sam Walton did during his life, and he was the richest man in the universe at one point!! (Good ol’ Sam drove a 1970s pick ‘em up truck, IIRC…)
I’d rather OWN a modest house than live in a larger one that’s still the property of the bank.
My mom used to have one of those corporate jobs. She worked for a large oil company. She took booiks to work every day and read because she had nothing else to do.
“Mickey and Jane Finn put their five-bedroom, 6,200-square-foot home in Leesburg, Va., on the market in April”
If you took the square footage of the past three houses I’ve lived in and added it together it wouldn’t equal 6,200 square feet. Why do people feel they need houses the size of Rhode Island?
I was thinking the same thing. A house 1/2 the size is still over 3K sf.
I saw a neat house in LA on the MLS. It was an older home in a better area but it was less than 2000 sq. ft. What they did was tear out most of the interior walls so it had a huge spacious living room, dining area, kitchen, and office space all in one gigantic room. Most of one exterior wall was floor to ceiling glass. They basically turned what was once a multi-bedroom house into a one bedroom house. I liked it. It was sort of like the “anti-mansion” mansion.
those yuppie bitches don’t clean. they have a small army of illegals come clean 2x a week.
And these people complain in the WSJ that they can only sell for 2x what they paid for it…..the thing that pisses me off with McMansions and SUVs is the whiners who choose to buy them, and then complain about the monthly carrying costs, as if someone forced them to buy.
Note the shift in reporting–focusing very much on what people originally paid for the house. Even though prices are down, the homebuyer STILL made money. Demonstrating the buying a home is still a good investment.
No, you mean was a good investment. And won’t be a good investment until prices come back down.
I am encouraged by the news that some McMansion owners have taken the smart option of auctioning off their places for what the market will bear. If this trend picks up, it will screw up the comps in a hurry and quickly bring the market values back to long term trend (40% below last year’s sale price).
Yeah, but some of these “auctions” have a set minimum price, and I’ve read elsewhere about the houses being pulled if the action price is too low. Frankly, unless I knew that the owners would accept the auction price, I wouldn’t even bother.
And these people complain in the WSJ that they can only sell for 2x what they paid for it…..the thing that pisses me off with McMansions and SUVs is the whiners who choose to buy them, and then complain about the monthly carrying costs, as if someone forced them to buy.
Moman, I believe the whining isn’t real. It’s “price dropping” like “name dropping”. It’s meant to impress but takes the “boorish” edge off things by appearing to be a complaint.
NO - that is not the choice! #1 not all older homes are moldy; #2 you can buy a large piece of land and then build your own smaller home.
People are not living in reality. Nobody has to buy a McMansion - for any reason. There are always alternatives…
I think I figured that out, so we sold it. But I really don’t like most older homes in Virginia. Wet basements most of the time for some reason. Smells are impossible to get out.
“John and Barbara Fiore, both 54, had to slice $50,000 off their $900,000 price to move their 5,500-square-foot house in Warwick, N.Y. Ms. Fiore says she worried that no one would want her six-bedroom home while it sat on the market all last year, because today’s families are smaller. (The eventual buyer was a married doctor with three young children.)”
This was a demographic fact for decades. People should have seen it coming. The birth dearth is going to have a major impact on real estate prices, taxes, government entitlements, and so on. Sad that these people are learning the hard way that having too many possessions makes you a slave to the possessions. Egads! It took 8 hours a week to take care of a house! I have better things to do than that! Time to return to the lifestyle of the 50s when the average house was a humble 1,000 square feet. I’m glad I have been buying savings bonds and municipal bonds instead of real estate the last 5 years.
There is no birth dearth among immigrants. Don’t be surprised if you see families buying these huge homes up when they get a little cheaper and filling them to the gills with extended families they bring over.
lol. Probably won’t happen. Good idea though. Most of these subdivisions have local ordinances that prohibit you from parking a pickup truck in your driveway or on the street.
Oh, so the same people who don’t obey national laws in regard to residence and employment, are suddenly going to obey subdivsion ordinances? Good one.
Guys, its already happening, especially in the DC area.
“Oh, so the same people who don’t obey national laws in regard to residence and employment, are suddenly going to obey subdivsion ordinances?”
For better or worse, this is what creates vigilantes.
For better or worse, this is what creates vigilantes.
Maybe in your imagination. Areas like Falls Church, VA, steadfastly refuse to enforce their own occupancy standards, because the restaurant owners scream that their busboys and dishwaters need a place to live. Of course, they never offer to pony up for the massive drain on social services and the schools caused by the massive, endless waves of immigrants. Falls Church used to be nice, but in about five years it’ll all be a mega-barrio.
Note to self, if considering a McMansion: check deed restrictions and local zoning regulations to determine maximum number of adults and non-related adults that can occupy the home.
For all their faults, condos have that advantage in most areas — specific restrictions on how many people can live in a unit.
Still not immune - in NYC there is a legal limit on how many people per room can occupy an apartment. This does not stop many people from stuffing apartments way over legal limits. There is so little enforcement. I have a friend with a beautiful 3 bedroom pre-war apartment in Brooklyn who has a tribe of West-Africans that has moved into the apartment upstairs. He estimates there are 10-15 different people living in there. It sounds like a 24 hr bowling alley in his apartment. He’s called Police, HPD, Landlord, nothing comes of it. Liberal judges in NYC never throw anyone on the street.
Yes, I bet your friend mindlessly steps into a voting booth every year and votes for the Republicrat idiots who are appointing those liberal judges and implementing those insane immigration policies, never making the connection. The clinical definition of insanity, I believe, is to keep doing the same things while expecting a different outcome.
A friend of mine lives across the street from a semi-new McMansion. He estimates there are about 35 adults living in it. The biggest problem this creates has to do with parking since it adds about 35 cars to the street.
It’s instructive to look around some of the older residential neighborhoods in central Phoenix–there are many bungalows here that are 1200sf or less. They were built in the 40s and 50s and have infinitely more charm and character than the architectural train wrecks they’re building in places like Queen Creeek and Maricopa. Presumably people raised families in these houses without their children being traumatized by not having a playroom with 15′ ceilings.
“It’s instructive to look around some of the older residential neighborhoods in central Phoenix–there are many bungalows here that are 1200sf or less. They were built in the 40s and 50s and have infinitely more charm and character than the architectural train wrecks they’re building in places like Queen Creeek and Maricopa. Presumably people raised families in these houses without their children being traumatized by not having a playroom with 15′ ceilings.”
I agree. Plus the older neighborhoods have mature trees (yes to outsiders, there are trees in Phoenix. I work on the third floor of a building and two cubicles next to windows are well shaded by trees in our office). I do, however, intend to avoid neighborhoods where there are bars on the windows of any house and / or check cashing firms or pawn shops in the area.
True, not all of those neighborhoods are places you’d want to be these days. But there are many that, while probably not as safe as McMansionville, are places where I wouldn’t be too concerned about living (I’d want a security system and a locked garage, of course). Some of the neighborhoods near downtown are actually quite nice and are attracting more singles, older people, etc. And yes, for those who think Phoenix is just a big desert, there are plenty of trees. The apartment complex I’m living in at the moment has lots of trees and a lake with plenty of water fowl (including a couple of cranes who don’t seem to mind the 110 degree heat).
Those poor shmucks had to wait a little while before making hundreds of thousands of $? Boo hoo, I feel so bad for them, not!
These people are the LUCKY ones! They got out and can still brag about their $100,000s profits. People who don’t sell by this summer will probably look back at these days as the missed opportunity of a lifetime.
Here’s hoping that 100K was helloc’d and they’re in the hole for transaction cost.
I live in the development they’re talking about (Lansdowne) and I’ve seen the auction sign. This isn’t your average McMansion. It’s a tract house McMansion with about 20ft spacing on either side and a postage-stamp yard. There are entire streets in this development where nearly every house is identical, except for a few cosmetic facade changes, and these crap boxes were selling for $900-$1m last year. People who bought them in 2003 paid in the $400s. They crank these things out like crazy all over the county. Loudoun County is going to implode. It is absolutely overrun with speculators. The notion of a $700K townhouse in a county where there’s buildable land in every direction is absurd.
We just decided to leave NoVA and move to Atlanta. We’re taking quite a bit of disposable income with us. My guess is that we’re not the only ones.
When are you leaving? I wish we were leaving N. VA too, but we are stuck with extended family here and all. Maybe we can leave next year. I’ll miss your reports from Lansdowne in Leesburg. That $820K “Potomac” brick model (Green’s house) they show in the picture would have a $650K asking price in Fauquier county. (50 minutes south).
I’m a regional sales manager, so I can choose to relocate within my region. I’ve shopped around in Atlanta and the price difference is incredible. Literally one-half to one-third of NoVA prices. I find it absolutely ridiculous that I earn nearly 3X the median income in Loudoun County and all we can legitimately afford is a vastly overpriced tract house on a small lot. These people have become absolutely delusional about what their homes are worth. Atlanta is much saner. BTW, on the National City “overpriced cities” report, Atlanta is only 0.8% overpriced.
Hi John, what’s the primary reason for leaving? Cost of living? And are you retired if you can move just like that?
I liked your analysis here. I used to live in Ashburn and can’t agree with you more on everything that you said. Well, the rest of us from No Va will just stay here and watch this thing implode.
How can a 6200 sq ft house go for so cheap? I thought VA was part of the bubble? How near is this to D.C.?
Fauquier Co. is just west of Prince William County, which is out 66 west from D.C. There isn’t the access to the airport or the larger businesses like in Loudoun, but mileage-wise we are just a little further from DC than Leesburg. (We know many neighbors who commute in to D.C. from here.) In 2003, we bought our 5,500 square foot home for $500K. We sold it and I wouldn’t likely buy another like it.
eBay Ad –
EXCLUSIVE LANSDOWNE/LEESBURG VA SINGLE FAMILY!
ONLY 30 DAYS LEFT FOR THIS 6600+SQ.FT. LUXURY HOME!
http://tinyurl.com/mxgfc
I love how they threaten to take it off the market if nobody snaps it up for their “bargain” asking price. What a joke!
it’s a common theme that you will see in Craigslist. Buy now or higher in 2 weeks later listing with agent.
That’s a good idea. I’m going to try the same technique with my beenie baby collection.
Does this house have 6,600 sq.ft. of air-conditioned area excluding the basement, or including? In reading listings of “northern” (non-Florida) homes, I find that part very confusing and often inconsistent. In Georgia, for example, there apparently is no convention for whether the basement is included. Since basements can be 1/3 or more of the total, if included, I think that’s a biggie, at least for out of towners scanning Net listings.
EXCLUSIVE LANSDOWNE/LEESBURG VA SINGLE FAMILY!
ONLY 30 DAYS LEFT FOR THIS 6600+SQ.FT. LUXURY HOME!
Room after gigantic room, and not a single book in the whole damn house.
Lotsa TV screen acreage, though. Oh, yes: and framed covers of Cigar Aficianado magazine on the wall (arriviste lit). Think they’re included at $1.09 million?
We just decided to leave NoVA and move to Atlanta. We’re taking quite a bit of disposable income with us. My guess is that we’re not the only ones.
Lucky! I’ve been trying to get out of here for two years.
I was just out in Leesburg the other day and it seems like 10% of the houses are for sale. Literally one or two houses for sale on each and every block. Its not gonna end well out there.
I had an uncle who lived in Leesburg on a hobby farm/tax dodge. This was about 20 years ago. I thought it was beautiful there. He had a couple of acres of land, and his “next door” neighbor (quite a distance away) had a colonial-era stone house. I assume that has all changed? If so, that is a real shame. It was a lovely place to live.
This gets back to something I wrote about earlier. Given the demographics, which are the opposite of the late-1980s bust, the exurban home market ought to get hit harder than the condo market this time — unless the condo glut is insane (Florida) or the prices are absurd (Boston).
Those McMansions never made sense to me in any event. All they do is inflate one’s cost of living. The rich live hassle free in high rises. They don’t have the time. Anyone else doesn’t have the money.
When the market goes flat, and given energy prices, middle-class to affluent families will choose smaller houses in established suburbs, not those monster homes in locations with monster commutes. There is going to be some heavy zoning conflict over subdividing them so they might actually be of some use someday.
Nah, condos will get hit the hardest. What are you going to chose? A real piece of dirt to call your own, or a tiny vote in condo complex? Everyone claimed this was about “freedom” vs renting. Well, the equation is heavily stacked to SFRs in that equation.
In Dallas, they’ve torn down a lot of smaller houses and replaced them with starter castles. The smaller houses they haven’t torn down still go for about a 200% premium over a comparably sized place in the exurbs. Even if a person commuted in a hummer, the gas bill would still not be high enough to justify that mortgage premium.
Businesses are moving into the exurbs at a rapid pace. They are attracted to the same things that have lured their employees: cheaper land prices, less crime and lower taxes. I think that a lot of city dwellers are simply deluding themselves about the value of living close to an urban center.
And what would someone do with 6200 sq ft for 2 people? A 2700 sq ft home is quite large to me. Most people can’t afford $3000 per month in utilities and tax costs.
After being crammed into 1000sft in CA, my family of 4 is more than happy in 1900 sft. I can’t fathom why people feel they need 3000-7000 sqft and those obnoxious Expeditions. Sometimes it almost makes me want to move to Europe where smaller is better.
I just got back from two weeks in Holland, where hip yuppie mommies pedal two or three children around (no helmets) on extended frame bicycles. I called them SUV bikes. How depressing it is to come back and see Suzannes everywhere towing around one dinky kid with a Suburban. Interesting, too, how the Dutch don’t feel compelled to build sprawling particle board hangers to live in; instead focusing on cozy, well decorated flats and townhouses. Single family homes seem rare.
My Dutch friends who emigrated here were all too happy to be able to afford McMansions. (Decorated with Ikea
) They still enjoy pulling their kids around in bikes, and the large communities with the trails were the only way to accomplish that. The cities/townhome tracts are too dangerous to do that here in D.C.
My Dutch friend is one of the estate owners in town. It’s sprawling and has 2 outbuildings they rent out.
We are a country of sissys (kids forced to wear helmets), “no child left behind” nonsense.
Odd that your Dutch friends would want to embrace the McMansion lifestyle. I’d trade into a Dutch townhouse with a bicycle commute in a heartbeat. Spending time there really opens your eyes to how hopelessly wasteful, senselessly excessive and indeed, absurd, American life has become.
Craven,
I agree to a certain extent. But the Dutch live that way not entirely by choice. Their housing is very expensive. I wish in a way we could build more villages where people can work, play, etc. in the same community. And it is happening to some extent. We have an interesting community in Fauquier called Vint Hill, http://www.vinthill.com/page.aspx?pg=home_new.aspx which is an old army base. Centex is also building an ambitious project in Northern Culpeper county that will consist of all the mixed-use in the world. (”Clevenger’s Corner”). I also visited Toll Brothers’ Dominion Valley in Haymarket, and it’s really not a bad concept. Kids can walk to school and there is shopping and recreation right there on the “Campus”.
It would be nice to upgrade transportation to include more trains to rural areas. But it’s a very unpopular concept.
I hope once this housing boom explodes, people will start talking seriously about the implications of monster houses, monster cars, two hour commutes, etc. But right now it’s bigger house, bigger car, living on credit, etc.
Dutch are cool. Bicycles and small Dutch townhomes is not the only good thing there (wink wink).
2005 -
Radio Netherlands reported last week that Holland is experiencing a “bourgeois exodus.” According to the state-funded service, “More and more Dutch people are leaving the Netherlands to live abroad.” Nearly 50,000 of them left last year, the highest number since the postwar era when the Dutch government was encouraging emigration. The emigrants are identified in the radio report as “highly skilled people . . . the kind of workforce you want to keep.”
The story suggests several reasons for the growing emigration. “Escaping the stress of clogged roads, street violence and loss of faith in the country’s once celebrated way of life,” says the report, “the Dutch are quitting their homeland in droves.”
Yeah, so they’re soooo liberal and tolerant. Legal drugs, prostitution, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and soon, if the Charity, Freedom and Diversity Party gets it’s way, legal sex with 12 year olds and dogs.
When I was in Holland, I remember saying “the Dutch are the most beautiful people in the world.” Everyone looked like they were from the beach volleyball circuit.
peterbob,
I agree, Dutch are extremely good-looking people. I remember that ice-skater from the Olympics, she looked like a doll - pearl teeth, blue eyes, blonde hair, etc.
A few newspaper reports from last year said that 1 out of 3 Dutch wanted to leave, and a large part of it was attributed to the disaster they have created in their own country by allowing Muslim and African immigrants.
The Dutch are beautiful, and also I believe they are the tallest people in the world due to good nutrition.
The comment about sex with dogs is just over the top, spoken like someone who has never actually been to Holland. The immigration issue is a big one. Muslims have not been integrated well into Dutch society, and it is creating a lot of tension.
It’s not just the Muslims. It’s also the hordes they’ve taken in from places like Guyana and Suriname. Almost all of the street crime is perpetrated by immigrants.
No kidding. After visiting London, Wales, Stockholm, and Norway in the past couple of months - my wife and I are sorely tempted to relocate overseas. Small, fuel efficient cars. Modest-size homes with modest furnishings. More neighborhoods within walking distance to markets bookstores theatres, etc. Neighboorly foreign policy. It’s like traveling to a different planet!
Screw all the cookie cutter McMansion subdivisions crawling with affluent, tired, angry, status-craving surgically enhanced people driving gigantic fuel-wasting road rage machines! If I see one more Hummer I swear I’m gonna bust out the rocket launcher! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
That is all.
Same goes for all those rednecks driving huge pick-ups that they really can’t afford. Only in America in 2006 could there be “status” in driving the biggest fuc*er truck you can afford!
Dually’s anyone?
Anthony - I know what you mean. I lived in Houston on and off for 10 years, but I swear there are more rednecks where I live now - in Riverside County, CA! I’ve never seen so many jacked up pickups in my life. And they drive like a-holes at 90mph up and down the I-15. They must be getting single-digit gas mileage driving like that.
Correction - Rivertucky.
Is housing generally more or less expensive in western europe then here? I mean on per square foot basis?
“Sometimes it almost makes me want to move to Europe where smaller is better.”
Heh… you’ve seen the Eiffel tower, right?
Europe is f’d. Been there & seen & read enough to know. It’s nice place if you don’t mind paying hundreds of thousands of euro’s to live in postage stamp sized apartment while immigrants & youths rampage in the streets because failed socialism has created mass unemployment. Oh wait- it sounds like what is starting to happen in American underground economy!
No one works in europe - it might sound nice to us overworked americans, but they have no productivity,no incentives for it and their economies are far more in the collective toilet than ours.
There is beautiful art & architecture & a lovely sense of sophistication. But the whole western part of the continent is rotting. In the east, the former soviet states are pure mafia/gangster economy but still young and can live cheep with US dollars if you don’t get mugged.
Which country has to borrow over $2 billion a day from the rest of the world just to keep going? While country imports $150 for every $100 of exports? Hint: it’s not in Europe.
Did families just get smaller in 2005? I love how they find random explanations for prices coming down, couldn’t just be that prices were way overextended.
Don’t you know? 6 months is the new 18.
almost every one of them is asking double their purchase price!! it is no time to feel sorry for them
“younger families seemed turned off by $1,000 a month utilities and $25,000 in taxes”
Really? What pikers! Paying $37,000 before you’ve made a dent in your pricipal, interest or insurance? We certainly don’t need their kind around here!
In the McMansion subdivision here in Fauquier Co. (a supposedly agricultural ommunity), we gave the HOA a heart attack when we attempted to make use of the 1-acre lot with a small vegetable garden and fruit trees. They weren’t “legal”, you see.
This is the part that I find un-fathomable. You are probably paying far out the nose for your 1 acre of happiness, and if you want some fresh sweet corn that you took the time and care to grow with your own hands on your own land the HOA should get stuffed.
Yep. But it’s a delicious irony to watch from the sidelines, isn’t it? Here is our Booboisie Royalty…and they still have to submit their tiniest decisions to a HOA. Hee hee!
So many people have no idea how bad the market can get yet. In my Detroit suburb, there is a pending sale down the street for $330k. This is a 4800 sf brick home on a large wooded lot. The home has been vacant at least a year. They built this Pulte home in 2001 for over 400k and added 50k in upgrades. Oh yeah, they threw in their Theater system (projection and plasma) and all their stainless steel appliances too.
Eye opening… What suburb is this? That is a big reduction in price. Especially for something built so recently.
Sterling Heights, Michigan. According to my realtor, everything around Detroit has been reduced substantially (try ~$100/sf) and still no lookers. He is making money on foreclosures.
Our house has been for sale for almost 6 months and only 2 lookers. Our asking price is now below our 2001 built price also. I can’t feel sorry for these greedy people in other markets. I just want to slap them.
Canton, Michigan is also bad. My friend sold her 2000 built home for 230k (2100 sf) last month. She bought it for that and then spent 55k on finishing the basement and adding a 1,000 sf deck. They did all the work themselves. She is just happy to have sold it.
Michigan’s economy has been bad for years. We never experienced the housing bubble as other markets have.
I was looking to buy in the Canton Area late last year but decided to hold off until possibly next year. I have been looking at the same homes I was last year that still haven’t sold. I want to leave michigan but My wife’s family is here so I may be stuck here a long time. The economy is definitely bad and even though as a first time buyer I want the prices to drop even more I don’t like to watch my friends have trouble selling their homes.
Canton’s motto should be “A McMansion subdivision on every corner!” 15 years ago it was mostly farms or empty fields with a few horses grazing.
I think the Michigan market peaked in late 2003/early 2004. My wife and I bought our house in late 1997. It would sell for more than we paid, but it’s definitely down from the peak. That house in Sterling Hts. sounds like a good deal but we’ll see many more in the coming years.
Do they have a granite countertop? If not, I suggest they purchase one ASAP. It’s what all the cool sellers are doing these days.
that Detroit suburb sounds like southern cal in early 1990s when prices dropped around 25% to 30% in many areas.
Wow , almost a 100K haircut in that price range . These people held the house for about 5 years and they are selling at least 100k below cost plus upgrades ? I think some great deals will emerge with time with this real estate correction .
Anyway , I have never in my entire life bought a house over 2000
sq feet . For 23 years I lived in a house that was 1650 sq feet . I never liked the idea of not using rooms . If someone wants a big house ,and they can afford it ,fine . Realize big is going to be expensive .I have a friend that has a 900sq foot condo that has a maid come in weekly to clean it because of lack of time or desire to clean it . My point is that people don’t even have the time to clean any sq footage anymore let alone McMansions .
I don’t think any of these will be great deals. They’ll be 4 unit apartments in crack-house style beighborhoods. The real shame is the loss of the open farmland it was 5 - 10 years earlier.
A little off topic, but I watched the show Frontier House and remember one of the mothers, during her exit interview, missing her small, small frontier house despite living in a huge OC mansion. He reasoning was that the OC house was so big that everything seemed so quite ans she rarely interacted with her family in her 20th Century house.
He reasoning was that the OC house was so big that everything seemed so quite ans she rarely interacted with her family in her 20th Century house.
That’s telling.
Although McMansions are built to flatter their owners with ersatz grandeur, in another way their size is also a measure of their occupants’ preference not to see or even hear each other.
A few years from now if anyone’s still living in these monstrosities, we can investigate what effect all this extra, unnecessary space has had on the American family, which one would have thought was already sufficiently narcotized and TV-addled to have made thousands of feet of physical separation superfluous.
Perhaps then Big Pharma will come out with a new pill to make ex-McMansion denizens feel “close” again: call it, oh, Proximitas. (Warning: side effects may include a nagging realization that cosmetic surgery hasn’t halted aging, one’s children really are terrible creeps, the dog smells and the credit cards are gone for a long, long time.)
Mr. Finn (mentioned in above article)
Dear Mr. Finn;
Since you are obviously a genius and a “legend in your own mind” you will never benefit from nor require the services of a financial professional but since you volunteered for the interview answer just a few questions for our loyal Ben’s Blog readers if you will.
Why is it that someone who is set to retire in 2006 would buy a freaking huge ass McMansion in 2002 was it?
Mr. Finn: They were handing out “tax free money” with the government land grab give away and I figured what the heck? Everybody else was cutting a fat hog why not me? We’ll have every thing a retired couple could want but if we could add another 500K to the coffers, WTF right?
I noticed you mentioned that you have two grown children. How long have they been “grown”?
Mr. Finn: Well they’re currently 36 and 31 and both live in California.
So you bought a 6,000 sq. ft. home for you and your wife then?
Mr. Finn: Yeah, and now we’re stuck with it. Kind of stupid huh?
Yes Mr. Finn, a picture of stupidity.
Mr. Finn was a flipper ,no question about it . Mr Finn thought he would make more money buying the bigger house , after all , real estate goes up 20% a year .
Are these all “move-up” sellers?
nope. just plain flippers.
The house I sold in 2004 was 2260 sq.ft. I have four kids. That was plenty big enough. Some areas of the house were rarely used as we could eat outside and BBQ most of the time. It can cost quite a sum just furnishing a house of the size to make it into a home.
I agree, a 2000+ sq ft house is big for an average family. We almost never used the dining room in our 2400 sq ft house, only when we had guests.
Most of these McMansions will be worth a percentage of their current worth in about 20 years. At best they are shoddy construction, at worst they are fashion statements whose decor and style quickly become passe especially when they may quickly be stigmatized as pariahs, as quicly as they were exalted as the next slice bread accessory just a decade ago.
The whole Ponzi scheme will end badly, very badly. To steal a quote — “this is a house of card built on a pool of gasoline”.
Give them bread and circuses.
My concern is who is going to buy all these ugly homes? I wouldn’t take one for free - I refuse to spent $1000 a month on utility costs.
McMansions are different in FL. Not very common (thank goodness), but I cannot imagine what benefit is served by all that extra space. It’s more rooms to furnish, more to clean, etc.
Residence hotels? Youth Hostels? Halfway houses for sex-offenders? Oh, I can think of plenty of people
In the past decade, the large homes built in the 50s and 60s in my area have been bought by private group home operators, who are allowed to run such businesses in residential housing without the need for permits or review. I expect in another decade or so many McMansions will similarly house parolees, drug rehabbers, juvenile delinquents, recovering alkies, sex offenders, mentally/physically disabled, the mentally ill, and whoever else a private corporation gets paid to warehouse. And their neighbors will be furious but powerless.
The lesson our community learned from this: fear the prospective buyers of the largest homes in your neighborhood. You may be in for a nasty surprise.
Homoaner — that is useful.
Yeah, the could be debtors prisons. How classic would that be, can’t affor your house, ok, now you’re either locked in an ugly mortgage or lock in your former house making license plates with several bubbas that like the way you look in dem jeans. Classic.
I agree. Professional decorators say that to furnish a house properly, you need to pay about half what you spent on your house for your furnishings.
Yippes..that would mean I need to buy a $20,000 house.LOL
Simmsays…Great Toys for Dads
http://www.americaninventorspot.com/node/1264
And professional realtors say that I need to grab some instant equity tout suite!
And professional realtors say that I need to grab some instant equity tout suite!
That’s a thought , the “professional decorators ” will lose work if we go into recession /depression also .
Actually not. People who use professional decorators won’t be phased by a slowdown. It’s not like the people buying McMansions use them. And lots of people buying these McMansions end up having no money for furniture.
Who uses the professional decorators?
Those McMansions may be remodeled into duplexes in the future. That would be a great business.
I’m a single guy living in a 600 sq. ft. condo in the center of DC. While I can understand the allure of McMansions for those with lots of kids or serious status needs, I never did much see the point otherwise (anyone remember “Xanadu” in “Citizen Kane”?). The only time I miss more space is when I have an out of town guest (having a guest bedroom is a nice amenity) or when I’m having a party. Otherwise, small is beautiful. And, like it says on those license plate frames, “Don’t laugh; it’s paid for!”
I really like this kind of thinking.
“The only time I miss more space is when I have an out of town guest (having a guest bedroom is a nice amenity)”
But on the plus side that gives you the PERFECT excuse when an annoying relative blows through town and wants a free place to stay (”gee, I’d love to but I just don’t have the space… can I make a hotel reservation for you?)
well, you can always say no.
Has anyone noticed that Jetta commercial where the drivers of other expensive vehicles have megaphones and are stating why they purchased their vehicle:
“Because Daddy never hugged me!”
“Because I want you to love me”
“Because I make more money than you”
It would be fun to make a housing commercial like that.
A few local anecdotes:
1. My sister, who works for a major multinational here, now has two new coworkers who relocated to Minnesota from Florida. Reason? They both told her they were fed up with the hurricanes, rising crime, and increasing cost of living in Florida. They managed to sell their homes and get out. They’re very down on Florida as a place to live, which makes quite an impression on their Minnesota coworkers who’ve always dreamed of retiring there.
2. A friend of the same sister is a local lawyer in the upscale suburb where most of the high-income employees at this company live. She reports the number of folks coming to her for bankruptcy and foreclosure issues has skyrocketed. She can’t get over it, because these folks earn such good wages. (But the status McMansion mentality here is pervasive, and Forbes reported this spring that home values in that suburb dropped by 16%.)
3. Another neighbor of mine bought a nearly new upscale washer/dryer combo that usually retails for about $2500 from a distressed home owner. She got the set for $900. The seller - living in the aforementioned upscale status suburb - had lost his job and was selling everything he could to make his house payments until he found a new job.
4. My neighbor’s daughter had a home built in this area. After her ARM reset, she and hubby couldn’t keep up with the payments and were facing foreclosure. They only managed to sell it to a canny Asian buyer who’d researched this woman’s financials and forced her down on the price, knowing she was desperate (as a result, she now hates Asians). They moved to Florida and bought there near the peak. Now hubby’s lost his job, they’ve fallen behind on their payments on their current house, and she’s sending begging emails to her former coworkers asking for cash donations to help them out.
Folks are simply living too close to the financial edge.
“Folks are simply living too close to the financial edge.”
Very well said. A stiff breeze (short term rates ticking up) will blow many off of that edge.
The facade of overconfidence begins to wear thin when the wolf is at the door night after night.
“They only managed to sell it to a canny Asian buyer who’d researched this woman’s financials and forced her down on the price”
How would one go about doing this, beyond finding out what they paid for the house and the amount of the mortage(s)?
“They only managed to sell it to a canny Asian buyer who’d researched this woman’s financials and forced her down on the price, knowing she was desperate (as a result, she now hates Asians)”
She should be thanking this evil Asian buyer for bailing her out when they did. Unbelievable - I suppose stupidity, ignorance, and racism are good bedfellows.
more like its everybody’s fault but them.
“Success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan.”
“She reports the number of folks coming to her for bankruptcy and foreclosure issues has skyrocketed. She can’t get over it, because these folks earn such good wages. (But the status McMansion mentality here is pervasive…”
Sad commentary. We get our self worth by buying something we can’t afford to impress others. The question is, why would someone be impressed with your oversized home when any fool can walk into a lending company, get a suicide loan, and buy one?
Envy you? Pity would be a better description.
Homoaner:
I, too, am seeing tons of people from Florida, California (especially San Francisco, less so from SoCal), and the DC area moving here. (my patients)
they all say the same thing:
it cost too much in those other places. they like how “kid friendly” mpls/sp is.
I think I’ve seen 4 families from Florida this week alone. It’s probably a combo of it being beautiful here in MN now (so fear of winter is less) and fear of hurricaines that are coming to FL
clouseau
…and she’s sending begging emails to her former coworkers asking for cash donations to help them out.
You’ve GOT to be kidding! Bubble SPAM!
“as a result, she now hates Asians).”
Some people are always jealous of others who are smarter.
Yeah, that one got to me, too. If she forms such a strong opinion after dealing with just one person, no wonder she has lousy judgment in financial affairs. I suspect she will always be destitute or close to it, and never understand why.
When you have lost everything, you can at least afford to fume in resentment. It’s more fun than admitting you have wasted yur life in foolishness, frivolity and vanity.
(Those McMansions may be remodeled into duplexes in the future. That would be a great business.)
More than duplexes. If the exurbs are ever going to morph into real communities, there has to be somewhere for the old, the young, and the working class to live. A 6,000 square foot home could be divided into nine 600 square foot apartments for the former, or six 900 square foot apartments for the latter, plus common areas. Zoning and infrastructure concerns are the barrier here.
THe only problem with this is, where the hell are these people going to work. Before it was one ass-hump yuppy commuting 50 miles in an SUV to a high paying job. About the only thing I can see is 45 mexicans per house share-cropping or picking lettuce for a farmer who manages to farm around the over sized eyesores. That may not even work well, not only is the land all chopped up with houses and streets, they went and removed the topsoil to boot and totally destroyed the land. What a$$holes. Pisses me off. Nice open-spaced to destroyed farmland. They should have called these neighborhoods “Pretentious Estate AT Destroyed Farmland”, because that’s all it is now.
At least they name the roads after the trees that used to grow there.
I wonder if these people, the ones that undoubtedly lost their ass in the stock crash, are going to connect the dots when this crash occurs? Will they look in the mirror and wonder WTF they were thinking? Will they have learned ANYTHING from their speculative behavior?
Probably not.
“I wonder if these people, the ones that undoubtedly lost their ass in the stock crash, are going to connect the dots when this crash occurs? Will they look in the mirror and wonder WTF they were thinking? Will they have learned ANYTHING from their speculative behavior?
Probably not. ”
It’s probably not likely the case that the same people caught in the tech bubble in the 1990s are the people caught in the real estate bubble. I was mostly into the S & P 500 mutual fund in 2000, but the stock crash still affected me somewhat. My net worth dropped from $400,000 in 2000 to $250,000 in 2002 to early 2003, but I kept investing in mutual funds and started into value stocks. The best thing I did was get into municipal bonds and Series I Savings bonds in 2001. I’ve been buying them regularly. Harry Dent’s book “The Roaring 2000s” was right in one sense: real estate is doomed to go into a depression with boomers downsizing. That’s a big reason I stayed out of real estate. Prices went too high too fast.
I totally want a 5000 sqft house for my single self…
Err, perhaps 1500 sqft house, and the rest garage
I would love a 3,500 sq. ft. garage! But not a house that big. MY wife and I, now at 963 sq. ft. might like 1200 to 1500 sq. ft.
Developers market the homes under names such as the Grand Michelangelo, Hemingway and Hibiscus — while detractors have dubbed them “garage mahals,” “faux chateaux” or “tract castles.”
LOL!
You missed Starter Mansions.
“…the buyers seemed turned off by the $1,000/month utility bills and $25,000 annual property taxes…” Why would anyone be turned off by this…how odd…how stange… …
Skylights in the closets! That’s better than granite countertops! =)
I was astonished by this too. I mean, a unecessary hole in the roof for a room no-one sees? That should be against the carpentry code of ethics, like that down-easter joke where the carpenter refused to build a house because it had two bathrooms.
Skylights in the closet save electricity, they need every penny
Yeah - like I want faded clothing.
My cats would probably love skylights in the closets, more sun for them to bask in!
Dammit, I NEED a 5000 square foot McMansion! Each cat needs her own room!
Hey guys - the Phoenix home that takes 8 hours of up keep per week that was featured in the article is MLS #2531723. Ziprealty shows a few pictures of the home including the backyard and pool.
Math, anyone? I count 10 months of inventory in that sentence.
In this month’s issue of Vanity Fair (Sandra Bullock on cover) there’s a fascinating article about SUPER McMansions in CT being built by the Wall Street elite. Many of these homes are 12,000 plus square feet (some 30,000 sq ft!). The ownders tear down old historic homes and replace them with these monstrous homes. I couldnt help but think :Who will buy these homes once hedge funds fail?”