Reply #31: Not talking about historic homes

[Southpaw Bookworm]

In fact, often historic homes are torn down to build these things. Often, these McMansions are 10 feet apart or less. Here in the DC area, that's how builders get around land use restrictions that require builders to provide "townhouses" supposedly for affordable housing: These 2500 sq. ft. homes are so close so that they share a basement wall, so that they can be considered rowhouses.) They are poorly built or cheap materials, make poor use of limited land, and often are antithetical to the historic character of a neighborhood. In some areas of Virginia, you'll have one of these things in a neighborhood of 750-sq-ft cape cods.

Not to mention that it's immoral to have that much space for one family, possibly of just two people, when public servants have to move 50 miles from their jobs to afford a house and when there's a two-year waiting list for families to get in to a homeless shelter.