NYT: Are McMansions Going Out of Style?

[DeepModem Mom]

Are McMansions Going Out of Style?
By FRED A. BERNSTEIN
Published: October 2, 2005


LAST year, McDonald's phased out its "supersize" French fries and soft drinks. Portions, it seems, had gone about as far as they could go.

Could the same be true of the supersized houses known as McMansions?

After more than 30 years of steady increase, the size of the typical American house appears to be leveling off, according to statistics gathered by the Census Bureau.

"The Generation X-ers who are becoming home buyers right now want more amenities - and they are willing to trade away space to get them," said Jerry Howard, vice president and chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders....The size of the average American house rose from about 1,500 square feet in 1970 to more than 2,300 square feet in 2001, with a particularly big growth spurt in the late 1990's.

But from 2001 to 2004, the growth practically halted. "That suggests that the size of the average house is stabilizing," said Gopal Ahluwalia, a statistician with the home builders' association. For the second quarter of 2005, the average new detached house measured 2,400 square feet, according to the Census Bureau....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/realestate/02nati.html

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Personally

I'd rather live in a 1000 square foot house with lots and lots of cabinets, shelves, etc. I only need space for a lifetime of stuff. I don't need SPACE.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Never thought about it that way, TG, but I hear ya!

I love my "stuff."

[Gormy Cuss]

12. Me too.

The more space I have, the more likely I am to accumulate stuff that I don't need.

I loved this quote:

Robert A. M. Stern, the dean of the Yale School of Architecture, said he believes many McMansions are actually empty nests. "You walk in the door, and there's not a stick of furniture - certainly not furniture large enough to justify the spaces," he said.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. That is an interesting quote. While I don't advocate accumulating...

stuff you don't need (that's not enjoyable or personally meaningful), I also wonder about the emptiness, on more than one level, in some of these houses.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. I watch the cheesy room makeover shows on TV and noted

a recurrent theme :large room with vaulted ceilings, architectural niches, and massive windows and all the home owners have placed in the space is the college dorm sofa set and a massive TV. The word 'hollow' comes to mind. It seems some people buy into the bigger-is-always-better argument without questioning whether it's really right for their needs.

I grew up in an old city with large Victorian mansions that had been chopped up into apartments. I see a similar fate for the McMansions in areas where multifamily dwellings are allowed. I doubt that the houses in wealthy suburbs will meet this fate but one never knows.

[marions ghost]

16. I know somebody who bought a McMansion

who has absolutely NO furniture except for one sofa. He & his wife can't even afford curtains and put old sheets over the windows. The vast walls are blank. I think he likes having an 'investment' rather than a house. Or maybe they never want to really commit to this place. It's a strange phenomenon.

[Skidmore]

23. The price of heating and cooling all that dead space

is most likely making dents in the love affair with McMansions. The next trend will be epanding second and third stories to fill up those vaulted ceilings and chopping up great rooms into more manageable space.

[Marr]

17. I agree- I'd much prefer a well-designed, efficient little house

with an actual yard to a "McMansion".

[ReadTomPaine]

2. In other words.. we're going to sell you smaller houses for the same price

and claim it's a new 'feature' and hip 'trend'.

[Marr]

18. HAHA- that sounds about right.

[Captain Hilts]

4. The front page of the WP shows they are very much in style in DC. nt

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Gonna be pretty expensive soon to heat and A/C all that extra air

[GCP]

6. After paying 70% more this winter to heat them

And probably another 50% increase next summer to cool them - they're gonna be the home equivalents of the monster-SUVs - can't get rid of them for love or money.
My moderate home will keep value - I hope - but the Mcmansions are going to be a horrendous loss for a lot of people. Just my opinion.

[acmejack]

9. Good, we can convert them into low cost housing.

Solve the affordable housing thing once and for all.

[radwriter0555]

7. 3 car garages with houses attached made out of plastic and trash are just

nasty.

Besides, no one ever parks their car in the garages, they just use them to store the walmart toilet paper.

[orpupilofnature57]

8. Fuck the hummer driving assholes anyway Ha ha

[marions ghost]

10. Dollhouses on steroids

...when they can't sell these albatrosses to the McWealthy (or no longer wealthy), they can turn them into duplexes and condos. There never was a building style so expressive of American over-consumption.

[KittyWampus]

25. the "Culture of Gigantism" is what a friend calls it.

[Danmel]

27. That's what I say

The whole country is afflicted with Gigantism- Giant Trucks, Giant Houses, Mega Rolls of toilet tissue to wipe their Mega Asses from their Mega Burgers and their Gallon size Cokes. Just too much on every level.

[Castilleja]

32. Gigantism...that's a good point.

I think that certainly fits many things nowadays. You have a smart friend!

[Boomer]

11. McSlums in the future

I've watched acres and acres of McMansions popping up like mushrooms in Northern Virginia and too many of them are built with particle board and staples. If they aren't meticulously maintained, they won't last as long as the 30-year mortgage that paid for them. One unattended leak will dissolve the walls and a small tornado will tear the roof off.

The house I'm living in was built in 1896 and will be standing long after I'm gone. And long after those suburban tracts are nothing but rubble.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Congrats on what must be a wonderful old house! nt

[Boomer]

21. Thanks!

The further irony is that this house cost a fraction of the cost of the McMansions in this area.

[cedahlia]

24. Cost

Another bonus! We bought our small, old house for about 1/4 of what you'd pay for a typical new McMansion in our area. And we got several acres with it!! We could never have had any land if we bought a McMansion. Most of the ones around here are slapped on half-acre lots so the builder can squeeze as many in as possible. Of course, this looks pretty ridiculous, but I guess some people must like having a huge hulking house on a too small lot, rather than a small house on a big lot...not me though!

[Boomer]

31. It's the mix of architectural styles that dismays me

Spanish villa sitting between Georgian manor and faux Victorian. There is no coherence, no continuity of style within the neighborhood, and no sense of appropriate scale on an individual lot. Each house is like a stand-alone residence pod, devoid of context or history, as if the inhabitants simply pop in and out using a transporter.

Creepy.

[midnight armadillo]

38. that's often the same house

Spanish villa sitting between Georgian manor and faux Victorian.

Often in the same home, mind you.

[cedahlia]

22. So true

Most of these fancy new monstrosities are actually very expensive pieces-o-crap. My husband is a carpenter, so he knows first hand all about this. He does trim work and custom built-ins in mostly mult-million dollar homes, and most of the newer homes he works in are very shoddily built. He has said the same thing...many of these overpriced McMansions may not live through to the end of the mortgage, because they are so cheaply and haphazardly constructed.

We did what you did...bought our first home last year...an old farmhouse. It's new to us, but it's over 100 years old. It needs updating (which, thankfully, hubby can do himself!) but it is solid. Our home inspector said it was in better shape than many newer homes he had inspected. We think it was originally built by an Amish family. It is small (under 1000 sq. feet) but small is good for us. Who wants to clean and maintain some huge house with rooms that will never get lived in anyway???

[Boomer]

39. Amenities can always be added

We still don't have a dishwasher, for instance, which is probably a deal-breaker for most prospective buyers who prefer new houses. And we're gradually remodeling the bathrooms, which are definitely outdated and quite small by modern standards. (They're going to stay small, too, but at least will have newer fixtures).

But the house hasn't settled or cracked since it was built, has a basement carved out of solid stone, and has walls thick enough to provide some natural insulation against the extremes of temperature. Which will come in very handy this winter when we turn down the thermostat to conserve our gas usage.

[Blue_Tires]

19. shit

they STILL can't build them fast enough in the Atlanta exurbs (my uncle made a late career change from insurance to construction, and might as well have started printing his own money)

[wovenpaint]

20. People are tearing down "old" homes here to put those up

I've been calling them "Barbie Dream Houses". (just as plastic-ick!)
But-they look like hotels now. I sure hope that they're going out of style!
The town I live in was projected to be "built out" by the 2020's, but with all this waste of space, I'll bet it's just about built out now....so, the town is turning it's eyes to commercial/industrial property-for the taxes. Can someone please tell me WHY we need a Walgreen's, a CVS and a Brooks Pharmacy all side by side???????
I have a small older home-but can't buy new furniture for it, too big! I love antique shops...

[Kaylee]

33. We had the same problem with furniture.....

Our house is a wonderful split foyer, built in the 60's. I love it. Hardwood floors, remodeled kitchen, nice sized yard, great neighborhood, etc. But when it came time to buy furniture, it was next to impossible to find furniture to fit a modest sized room. Everything was a huge, ugly, hulking monstrosity that wouldn't even fit through our front door. It wasn't until I visited my brother-in-law in his 4000 sq ft house that I realized who they were making this furniture for. Normal sized furniture would look like it was meant for a doll in his house.

[Fuzz]

26. I prefer a house with a little land

So many of the houses we looked at here in NJ when we were buying 4 years ago were huge with very little land. You could almost pass something to the neighbor's house through a window. We went with a corner lot house that was 30 years old that had some space for a garden and room for the kids and dogs to play. Sure, the house isn't as big, but big enough, and frankly, built better than those new Mc Mansions.

But damn, the price of houses have gone up so much since we bought 4 years ago. Our house has increased in value by about 50k a year each year since we bought it. Great investment if it continues, but we're not counting on it. We have noticed that a lot of people have been making a lot of improvements on their houses in the area though, probably tapping into their equity.

[earth mom]

28. McMansions are Monstrosities!

I would NEVER buy one even if I could afford them! The ostentatious cookie cutter "ness" of those houses really grates on my nerves! Can you tell I'm not a yuppie, and can't stand yuppies in the first place?! lol!

We live in a smallish 100 year old simple farmhouse on half an acre and I would never ever trade having a house with character and a big garden for more square footage. We've been fixing our place up slowly but surely and we love it. The only reason I would move from here is if things got too crazy in this country and we decided to flee to Canada or elsewhere. Otherwise we'll move from here when we retire to the coast or maybe if we find an ornate Victorian Italianate home for sale; which has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. :)

[markus]

29. In New Orleans, with flood insurance capped at 250k

I hope they're history. Some folks in badly affected areas are gonna be very deep on debt on a lot with rubble on it very soon.

[degreesofgray]

30. I'd love to see

both the monster houses and monster SUV's hit a downtrend. What would be better is a government that sets measures in place that discourage such rampant waste.

This winter, while the poor and elderly are struggling to pay heat bills, how many people are going to be wasting energy on heating 3000+ square feet houses (many, if not most, impractical for the average homeowner)?

We need both conservation and conservation-friendly legislation (rather than waiting for "market forces" to fix what ails us).

[progressivebydesign]

34. Overhead the other day from a woman driving a hummer...

Ugh. Here is what I overheard in a local flooring store.

The woman sez to the saleman: I'm just SOOO overwhelmed. See, my husband and I are building a 4,800 sq. ft. house and he wants to do the entire 2,800 sq ft. floor downstairs in slate! I don't know a THING about slate!

[Hardrada]

36. I heard some of that too in a supermarket

and they were going on who had the most square feet and all those people were perilously high on the Smug Scale. I sometimes wish i could barf on command.

[Hardrada]

37. We have a comfortable house

and for more space for stuff we just rent storeage units. Why build a large McShithouse? Just for extra junk?

[Redstone]

35. My God, I certainly hope so. The only thing I hate more than Yuppies

is the McMansions they build.

Sorry if the "hate" part offends you, but it's really how I feel. I may have my doubts about other segments of American society, but I promise you that I'll keep an open mind about any group, until I get to know one or more members of that group.

And the odds are, that I'll find a way to like those people, no matter what group they fit into, because I'm one of those who would rather get along with someone than not.

But. I will NOT tolerate yuppies. Especially if they build McMansions, and especially if they build them near where I live.

They are a cancer on our society. They care for nothing except for themselves and their status.

Redstone