Downsizing the American home
During the housing bubble, KB Home priced out first-time homebuyers by building bigger. Its new, more modest model provides a glimpse of what the return of the housing market may look like.
By Shawn Tully, editor at large
(Fortune Magazine) — In the history of real estate there are a handful of legendary homebuilders – William Levitt, who created Levittown on Long Island, being one, and then there’s Eli Broad, who became a billionaire building tract homes throughout the Midwest and Southern California.
Surrounded by the famous Jasper Johns series “The Seasons” in his office 11 floors above Los Angeles’ Wilshire Boulevard, Broad does not miss much. The 75-year-old real estate pioneer has seen bull and bear markets, and in recent years he watched as the company he founded (and cashed out of so he could focus on philanthropy) lost its way. During the bubble, KB Home (KBH, Fortune 500), like many other big builders, blew up its old-line business by going ritzy and building expensive houses. Now KB is among the first homebuilders to recognize the error of its ways, and it is returning to its roots as a purveyor of low-cost, smaller homes. In some cases KB is even using the same façades from the go-go years and then shrinking the house that lurks behind them to be half as deep – and about half as expensive. “If I had to write a headline for housing, it would be back to basics,” says Broad. “The right thing to do is just what KB is doing: build starter homes that compete with rentals.”
KB’s recovery plan is not just a tale of two houses. It is a tale of two CEOs. During the bubble Bruce Karatz, a flamboyant marketer, believed that the public’s hunger for McMansions would keep the good times rolling for years to come. It was his successor, Jeff Mezger, a hammer-and-studs operator, who recognized that the world had gone mad and steered KB back to first-time buyers. That strategy shift may prove to be a primer on how the housing market rejuvenates itself after a boom and a bust…………continued
Barry E-Remodeler
Replies
Since WW2, residential neighborhoods all over the country seem to experience the same 'life cycle'. They started as bare land, then were developed into new single-family housing.
Within a couple of generations, each neighborhood declined a bit and became a mixture of single family and multi-unit buildings. And a mix of owner-occupied and rentals. A decade or so after this shift, the neighborhood had become low-class rentals, populated mostly by families with generational poverty issues.
True "neighborhood revitalization" might follow the poverty years, but might not.
So, I believe that these same things will happen to the gated McMansion communities. The biggest difference is the number of square feet available to the renovator, when the house is converted to apartments. I guess its possible that this means (eventually) a higher concentration of generational poverty in such neighborhoods.
And I'm guessing that, whether or not we realize it, that trend might have already started.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
It seems that neighborhoods eventually come full circle. Where I live you can see that in the downtown revitilation as well as the nearby areas that were abandoned as the freeway was developed to the outlaying suburbs
Barry E-Remodeler
< families with generational poverty issues.>
I flat LOVE that euphemism. I'll be using it when I mean another word.
Forrest
Interesting idea, though I don't think it always applies. We have a lot of "mansions" in my town from the early 1900's. Beautiful, beautiful houses. Every now and then I stop and think while driving through that these neighborhoods were once the place to be for the wealthy. Some have become rentals, halfway houses, college housing, etc. Some are still lived in by rich people, some not so rich old house lovers, etc. So the area has yet to devolve into low rent housing. Never has. Might be partly location--the land will always have a lot of value. And the fact that the houses were built to last--they are still valuable houses in anyone's book. I wonder how today's McMansions will be faring in 100 years.
BarryE
For decades Americans were able to experiance larger and larger cars on modest budgets.. finally the oil crisis came in the 70's and suddenly smaller cars like Pinto's and Vega's became popular.
That did not mean that big Buicks and large stationwagons were stopped being made, just that attention was focused on smaller cars for a while..
As mileage improved and the cost of Fuel became less critical we adjusted and then instead of large stationwagons we started to Buy SUV's
Now they are closing plants as attention is once again focused on smaller cars..
Do you start to see the cycle?
Homes are like that as well. The era of large houses built with studs is about over, new technology will make smaller houses energy efficent enough to once again be affordable.
I've been around more than long enough to see cycles. But unlike autos I see housing as having been on an upward spiral since I can remember. The early eighties I don't remember seeing a significant downsizing in what the customers expected in a home, only in the number of units being soldIn the housing sector I think they are more things in play and it will be interesting to see what shakes out
Barry E-Remodeler
BarryE
With housing you need to step back and look at a longer cycle. during the thirties/40's much of the housing was either shantees or much larger 2 story homes.. Only with the post war building boom were small ranch homes popular.
Considering many of the returning war veterns grew up in those modest shantees those ranch homes were a major step up..
"Considering many of the returning war veterns grew up in those modest shantees those ranch homes were a major step up.."Very true. My dad grew up in a 900 sf story and a half. After returning from WWII he raised us in an 1100 sf ranch..no garage. I built him one in my second year as a carpenter.When I moved into a 1600 sf quadlevel, my relatives accused me of living beyond my means. My daughter has bought a McMansion and I guess I could accuse her of living beyond her means, but her husband makes more money in a year than I do in five. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
Blue,
We need to put these McMansions into perspective. The labor it took to build those early Post WW2 1000sq.ft. tract houses is actaully less than the 3500 sq.ft. McMansions built today.. adjusted for inflation a $350,000 mortage is no worse than the $3500 mortage my dad paid for his first home. (which was 712 sq.ft.) in 1949.
Nail guns, power saws, prefabricated stuff, equipment have lowered the cost of construction to the point where there really isn't that much differance. Yet we're all supposed to feel guilty about owning one?
I'm not sure I understand your numbers. I worked with quite a few carpenters that spent many years building post war homes. They used to stand up a 1100 ranch in one day with five carpenters. One after another, they'd move down the street. They hand pounded everything and cut all the rafters by hand. At the end of the day, they would have set the beam, deck, walls, roof and set all the windows and exterior doors. All the exterior pine would be done. Most of these were board sheathed (with tar paper) houses that later were "celotex" with paper. 40 hour houses. Hows that compare to the 300 and 400 hundred hour houses that I routinely framed? Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
Blue,
I've watched crews today frame those small ( approx. 1000 sq.ft.) tract homes with a crew of three in two days. Frame as in weather tight with shingles (set up) on the roof ridge. When I was a kid (early 1950's) I'd watch tract homes take two weeks to build to that same point..
I sold a telehandler to a father and two sons team who framed a 2500-2800 sq.ft. 2 story home in 4 days and have it pass inspection on the morning of the 5th.
I'm sorry you can't tell me you can hand nail things faster than modern nail guns can. You can't tell me that you can saw a board faster with a hand saw as you can with a Skil saw.
You cannot get me to believe that you can hand saw the rafters and everything faster than you can set trusses.
Putting plywood on a roof with a telehandler is a lot faster than handing skip sheathing up through the rafters.
The differance between what you are doing and what they did back then was in those tract homes they had three plans, well actaully two because one was simply a morror image of the other..
You need to sit and layout things because youi don't "know" where the next board is going. You are doing true custom building. They were doing production building.. The same house, the same plans, just next door!
The framers I mentored under used power saws. I never claimed that they were faster with hand saws. I said they hand pounded everything. I said that in the earliest days, they applied board sheathing, both on the decks, walls and roofs but we all know that plywood came into common use shortly after the war, so most of my post would be talking about house being framed with plywood. The idea that telehandlers would speed up things is flawed too. The lumber was dropped ten feet from the basements and the telehandler couldn't possible speed things up from that perspective. You would be able to eliminate an hour of plywood staging...maybe only a half hour. After all, the roofs were only 4/12 and on an 1100 square roof, there is probably only 36 pieces of plywood. If a rookie couldn't get 36 pieces of plywood leaned up in a few minutes, they wouldn't last long. When I started, they stronger guys routinely hefted 4 sheets of 1/2 cdx (Potlatch). (I only carried three) That means it took about ten trips to the plywood pile to stage the entire roof! The layout man laid every house out from memory. The wall lengths and window lengths/centers never changed...only the front elevation details. I don't have any doubt about the veracity of the framing stories that I listened too when I started out framing. I know because I worked with guys that could move down a wall hand framing at such a speed that they could easily beat out more than half the framers I see today with guns. The guys today don't believe me, but I know it's true. Detroit was built on assembly line thinking and Bill Pulte started out as a framer in Detroit. He applied the assembly line thinking to the entire framing operation and later applied it to the entire house building system. The results speak for themselves. Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
when I bought my 1/2 acre five years ago, it was $7000
today the 1/2 acre beside me is $47,000 and then they put a 100k house on top of that. I think the county is pushing this because they are creaming their shorts over the properity tax, bigger, bigger, bigger.and they wonder why so many are in forecloser
Blue
I have no doubt about the veracity of what some people claimed.. there are always exceptions. However some of the stories I've been told don't equal what I observed.. Now in the early 50's I didn't see a single skil saw, let alone a nailer. They existed but I didn't see them.. plywood too was around but nobody built houses with it back then.. I didn't start seeing it until the mid to late 50's
Plus houses back then had a lot less in them. No insulation for one thing.. a lot less wood, 24" on center was far more common..
24" on center was far more common..
maybe in Minnesota but not down here in Iowa. Dont think I have ever tore into a house built in the 50's to see 24" centered 2 X 4's. And they had insulation in them as well, maybe not as good as the stuff of today but they had it.
I'm starting to think that building practices in Minn. are so unlike the rest of the country!
The biggest track home builder in this area used to frame a house per week with one crew, that included everything being ready for the mechanic's, electricians, plumbers..... All of this without nailers.
Doug
I never paid any attention during the fiftes. How many guys on a crew?
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
I never paid any attention during the fiftes.
How many guys on a crew?
Hey dammit I wasn't around to have seen any of it back then!
I've worked on a lot of those places since then. The area that I'm in didn't have any sort of trac-home builder like people think of out in CA or down in TX or other places. I doubt they were building more then a few hundred houses a year in their hey-day.
I trimmed for this very company for a few years and at that time they were building about 140-150 a year and that's in good times. Since then though there has been some real low end builders come to town, but still none of the large KB, Pulte, ..........not a big enough area to subsidize that many large builders. Hell Iowa only has 3 mil for the state. Biggest city is Des Moines and I don't think that is much more then 3-400,000 give or take. Cedar Rapids (area that I'm talking about) pop. is in the neighborhood of 130,000.
What we were doing as trimmers in these tracks would be considered high end down in Texas. For the company that I worked for there is still a certain amount of quality for your money. Some of the other big builders that came to town it's hack all the way. I think the main big builder that came to this area in the last 15 years was a big builder over in Des Moines.
More info then you asked for but........
As for how big the crews were - not real sure cause as I said I wasn't there! But some of the guys that are now construction suppers for the company that I worked for were carps back then. If I recall they said that they had 4 or 5 man crews.
The thing about this particular trac-builder is that it was known as a good place to work. Before we went through some tough economic times in this area(mid 80's) they had all there own carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and union wages were the norm. I believe they have been in this area since the 50's, Well known family.
Now they don't have any of the trades on payroll but they are not hiring the cheapest of subs either. I know that 10 years ago I was getting around $1.25 a sq to trim and then there were a lot of extras that went on top of that. I think I've heard that down in the Houston area they are/were paying 85¢ as of a few years ago! You'd have to be a race horse to make any money at that price.
Doug
How many guys on a crew?
I'm sure this is not typical, but my grandfather and his helper (who was older than Grandad) built a 1500+- sq/ft house a year for about 10 years after he "retired". The two of them did everything from digging the basement to shingling the roof and everything in between. No subs. Zero. None what so ever. My dad and uncle did a little work on the houses that each of them ended up with, but I suspect they were more in the way than helpful.
I grew up in one of the houses he built in 1956 - my mom still lives there. Side note: While my mom was giving birth to me (used to be they kept newborns and their mothers in the hospital for more than 24 hours), my dad was moving the furniture from their little rental home to the house my grandad had built for them without my mom knowing. When he drove us home he drove right past the old house to the new one. Mom never had a clue. Dad and Grandad loved to do sh!t like that.
My current house was built in '56. Both houses are similar. The two distinctions I see are: my house has drywall and plywood sheathing on the roof and subfloor. Mom's house has plaster board and 1x roof sheathing and subfloor. Both are brick veneer and I assume the wall sheathing coresponds to the roof sheathing and subfloor, but I don't know for sure. I live in a larger city than Mom and I suspect that has something to do with the difference. Grandad was doing things the way they'd been done for a while. The big city builder was closer to the cutting edge. Both houses are well built, but I wish I had plaster walls. Oh yeah. One other difference. Mom's house was originally plumbed with copper supply. Mine had galvanized.http://grantlogan.net
Who got Bo Diddley's money?
While i understand about lot values, all big houses are not Mcmansions.I attended members night at our local HBA Home Expo Friday night that would seem to bear this out. The footprints were smaller than last year. Also last year 10 of the 12 houses were over a million. This year the highest priced house was "only" 875,000.The other thing i liked about this development is that there are no garages in the front and the alley is back.
Barry E-Remodeler
When I helped a guy frame houses in 1996, the two of us did most of the work. We'd usually get two or three other guys to help place trusses (guy I worked for had a fork lift) and sometimes get two others to help with shingles or siding. Later, he had guys that needed work help us--usually one or two at a time, but only one guy lasted longer than a couple weeks.
DougU
Oh, by the mid to late 50's insulation was pretty common. But a lot of those early tract houses didn't have any.. On the other hand I remember seeing my grandparents gas bill of $1.78 so things were a lot cheaper back then.
Oh, by the mid to late 50's insulation was pretty common. But a lot of those early tract houses didn't have any..
Yea, I dont doubt you on that, hell by the end of the 50's I was still only 5 or 6 years old!
I know thats about the time that insulation started to become the norm for houses. It wasnt great but there was something there to slow the wind down.
Doug
DougU
I grew up in those tract homes.. I watched them building right next door because we moved from one tract home to another. Dad's first home sold (in 1948) for $2395. $300 more because it had a basement.
He sold that when my sister was born and moved up to a three bedroom that was probably 300 sq.ft. larger but was built on a slab*.. Dad sold his old house for $100 more than he paid for it so in effect the new three bedroom didn't cost him anything..
* Please note these were differant developments.
As a kid my playgrounds were the nearby homes being built.. Since we were the first in the neighborhood and I had several summers of watching homes being built..
I think I was about 7 years old when I worked as a "security guard" for that last building in the neighborhood. I got paid 5cents per night to call the developer if anybody entered the apartments being built. Not bad! I made 85 cents that summer! plus every night I would pick up all the straight nails that were dropped and set them by sizes in neat piles at the entrance. I made as much as 20 cents per night doing that!
Doesn't sound like much now but for the time it was major wages for a kid!
As a kid my playgrounds were the nearby homes being built..
Yeah, mine too. Especially the dirt pile.
http://grantlogan.net
Who got Bo Diddley's money?
Here's what I remember from the 50's in Michigan--2x4 studs 16" o.c., kraft faced fiberglass insulation, diagonal 1x6 subfloors (boards left wild and cut with Skillsaw after they were laid), Cellotex wall sheathing and often tarpaper over it, plaster on metal lath. Don't remember much about roof sheathing, think it was 1x's on rafters. Center beams in basements were triple 2x10's, as were garage door headers (IIRC--maybe garage door headers were just doubles). Many garages were plastered inside too. Ours was just plastered on the house wall and the others were bare studs. Big picture windows of then new Thermopane glass, always facing the street.
Usually the builder began by scraping the lot clean and piling the topsoil at far corner. One builder back then sold that back to the buyer--if you refused to buy it back, he took it away and left just the clay or sand that was under the topsoil layer and then your lot was lower than the surrounding lots and you often had lots of (I hand dug around a couple sides of a foundation for some people a couple years ago--the builder who had removed topsoil and left clay, had backfilled with clay. He did have a nice thick coating of bituminous waterproofing on the foundation blocks, but water was running through the basement windows, through cracks under the sills--the sills were just sloped concrete that had cracked and most hadn't bonded to the block).
Many builders leftover materials, sometimes burned first, in the hole next to the foundation and backfilled with whatever they took out to make the hole--not pea gravel. Footing drains were clay tile, butted, IIRC, and joints covered with strips of tarpaper. Lots of this are was sandy soil, so it didn't much matter that they backfilled with that.
Here's what I remember from the 50's in Michigan--2x4 studs 16" o.c., kraft faced fiberglass insulation, diagonal 1x6 subfloors (boards left wild and cut with Skillsaw after they were laid), Cellotex wall sheathing and often tarpaper over it, plaster on metal lath. Don't remember much about roof sheathing, think it was 1x's on rafters. Center beams in basements were triple 2x10's, as were garage door headers (IIRC--maybe garage door headers were just doubles). Many garages were plastered inside too. Ours was just plastered on the house wall and the others were bare studs. Big picture windows of then new Thermopane glass, always facing the street.
That's exactly how it was done here. The plaster deal, from what older guys told me you could do your own and save a couple bucks, worked with one guy that said he did his own, saved a few hundred but that's probably what it took for him to afford the place.
Doug
Forget "business cycles" ... look at yourself! Most readers of this forum are part of the "baby boom." That's a huge population bubble, one that has been distorting markets since the day they were born. What does this mean to us? It means that in the 80's they were looking at 'starter homes' and condos. In the 90's, the family was growing. The first part of this century, those kids were growing up, having bigger toys. All this led to a desire for larger homes, with plenty of bedrooms, three garages, and multiple 'party rooms.' Now, those kids are looking at getting their starter home - while Ma and Pa are looking at retirement. The kids can't afford, nor do they need, a big place. Ma doesn't want to clean all those rooms, and Pa doesn't want to mow an acre of grass. (Notice how the 'lawn care' guys are prospering?) So, I expect there will be three distinct areas where things will be happening for the next ten years:
A) Building of duplexes and quadraplexes in semi-private communities;
B) Building basic homes on smaller lots;
C) Building 'incomplete' homes on larger lots (that is, homes pre-designed to accept future additions); and,
D) Converting McMansions into separate dwelling sections. Regarding the garages, though ... don't expect them to get smaller. Not only are folks buying more 'toys' (ATV's, boats, etc), many of the older folks are making them into home workshops.
Thats an excellent analysis
Good analysis. I have toyed with this idea for a few years now.
B) Building basic homes on smaller lots;
2 bed rooms, seems like as the boomers get older less house and less lot makes sense. One floor, easy care, handicap accessible.
Make them energy efficient as possible and I would wager they will sell. Easy to combine that with your next idea of the expandable home. I have two children , both of whom would love to get into a small house of there own but the market has dictated large places neither wants or can afford.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
" but the market has dictated large places neither wants or can afford."And in a lot of places the government.In some cases directly my min lot size and/or house size.But also by having all kinds of impact and developements fees.If they have to pay $20 - 50k just for fees that will drastically increase the min cost of a house..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
That is true, right now,here, the development fees are a huge expense.
The builders argue that to recoup that money they are forced to build bigger more expensive houses.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Drywall was becoming popular, but my dad's house and the neighbor's house had plaster walls (with a sort of brushed "fan" looking texture--really pretty nice. The mason tinted the plaster in the garage and we didn't paint it for many years. Several people did laminated drywall only to have the ceilings fall in when the adhesive failed in the 70's.
I still think here in the hurricane zone, if you built totally concrete houses even concrete roofs, with a small 1/4 to 1/2 acre lot. concrete wall, garage about 1200 sq feet, you could make a killing. maintance free, hurricane proof, security proof. It be great for starter and those retireing. maybe a in ground pool, small garden
Edited 6/8/2008 3:37 pm by brownbagg
I've been thinking along the same lines since early adulthood--about the time I got out of college in the mid-70's. Even had an idea for a concrete "trailer" type house--and another where you more or less bury culvert half way and cover with concrete.
I have my dads worm drive he bought in 47. He built track homes like levi town but not as much. Saw still works fine.
I have grandpas saw--same vintage.-grandpa died in the early 5-'s--so presumably this saw pre-dates THAT, LOLold SkilSaw----it's BIG-like 8-1/4 or 10-1/4--- heavy--but it works--not that I ever use it.
stephen
" adjusted for inflation a $350,000 mortage is no worse than the $3500 mortage my dad paid for his first home"Again you are making up stuff out of clear air (or muddy lake water).http://oregonstate.edu/cla/polisci/faculty-research/sahr/sahr.htmMuch closer to 8 times..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
My first thought is, "One can only hope!" Man, I hope it is! And McLimo automobiles, or whatever the equivalent name is for an SUV that is bigger than most garages! Hey, take all your stuff with you wherever you go. Keep all those security blankets with you at all times. Okay, I'm starting ot rant; I'll stop now. (Except my rave about the people who say they want to be "self sufficient" and get some "elbow room," so they move to the country and then demand all the services (water and sewer, police and fire protection, etc.) that they had in the city and then complain that their taxes keep going up.)
Edited 6/6/2008 12:33 pm ET by Danno
<(Except my rave about the people who say they want to be "self sufficient" and get some "elbow room," so they move to the country and then demand all the services (water and sewer, police and fire protection, etc.) that they had in the city and then complain that their taxes keep going up.) >And they also complain that the farmers tractors make to much noise, they work to late at night and their pigs smell.
Barry E-Remodeler
Exactly. Place on the other side of the state, near where I used to live, used to be a rural township and then became an upscale city. People moved there and then passed laws about that very thing.
One farmer was being driven out of business because his dairy cows smelled and neighbors complained.
That was also the community where the mayor wanted an interchange, even though US 31 already had another interchange just a mile up the road. So he camped out in the office of his buddy, the director of the state department of transportation and the next thing, he had a 7 million dollar interchange. Forced several blueberry farmers to sell the land needed for the interchange (eminent domain) and forced them out of business.
This, incidentally, is the same community that made national news when a little girl lost her cat and posted signs around the city--she was fined for violating the no sign ordinance. I think she or her parent's may have even faced imprisonment because they were ordered to remove all of the signs and they missed a few. When they became the laughing stock of the nation when it made national news, they lightened up and dismissed the charges.
Ah, government at work. That's why I left that career (gov't planner).
When lots cost 150 to 250 grand just to start in my town.
If you can find one for that.
So people are forced to build higher end homes.
No ones gonna build a real small home and suffer a lot, home ratio and then risk selling it besides.
So to build small homes would require cheap lots.
Young family need to be where jobs are so more then likely thats near a urban center.
I cant think of many citys surrounded by a large inventory of cheap land suitable for building within commuting distance.
Maybe theres large tracks near Wilshire boulevard for this scenario to play out???
Same problem here Bobby. Land is so expensive that it's literally impossible to make any money on it. So the only way to build and turn a profit is to build big..... because the land is a wash. It's that or build a multi unit building.... and you can't build those just anywhere. Right now the highend market is what's hot in my area. The mid-level 2500sqft colonial with two car garage is deader than dead. View Image
Right now the highend market is what's hot in my area.
Yeah, here as well. I only have high end jobs booked. Everything else is dead. Normally, I've had to book a mix to keep everyone busy. But I have more work booked than I ever have in my career. I'm starting to sub some of my competition and raid some of the others for help. http://grantlogan.net
Who got Bo Diddley's money?
Nice dude. You must be doing something right. I wanna be the 'you' of framing. ;)View Image
I wanna be the 'you' of framing.
No you don't. But, you're on the right track hooking up with the "right" architects. You break those guys in right and they start specifying things that you're the master of. Make 'em look good and they'll make you look good.
One of my Archy guys is getting profiled in some builder magazine I'm not familiar with. Somebody in his office called the other day to brief me that I was gonna be interviewed as one of the "little people" that made him great (and he is good). We'll see how that plays out. http://grantlogan.net
Who got Bo Diddley's money?
<When lots cost 150 to 250 grand just to start in my town.
If you can find one for that.
So people are forced to build higher end homes.>Higher end homes and McMansions are 2 different animals imo
Barry E-Remodeler
I may not know the difference. I only saw what i thought to be Macmansions when i went to my folks in northern NJ last year and my dad drove me through some subdivisions.. Very big homes all kinda the same with fake rock in front.. Im guessing they were at least 4000sf. No trees, every one looked like the same house with a different front. 2 commuters living in each one. Looked depressing to me
sounds like Mcmansions it's why I like older neighborhoods where everything doesn't look exactly the sameAKA high end wannabes
Barry E-Remodeler
"Looked depressing to me"It's very depressing. The only sounds during the daytime are mowers and blowers.
Push a button, the door goes up, and the dark tinted glass auto slides out of the garage as the door quietly rumbles back down. The Chemlawn stands straight with no interruptions save for the Everest size mountains of dark mulch at the bottom of every tree or even possible tree.
Nothing for now.They pull up between 10:00 and 3:00 with all their equipment and start their engines, first the four stroke. The 56" wide mowers glide over the lawns, turning on a dime, and then the two strokes start in and all is mayhem for about 10 more minutes until the last of the 1/2" cut off grass clippings are neatly gone (to where?!). They may do the next house, or the next after that, but within 45 minutes, they are gone, chattering away in their own languages.Nothing.More nothing.A schoolbus (maybe), and a child or two slips quickly into the large house, not to emerge until the next morning to do it all over.Nothing.The button is pushed, and the tinted glass car glides back into the garage and the efficient door faithfully closes.NothingAt dusk, the lamp post is electronically given the signal to quickly go on and stay that way all night, like a sad old night watchman stoically holding his beacon into the dark.
"At dusk, the lamp post is electronically given the signal to quickly go on and stay that way all night, like a sad old night watchman stoically holding his beacon into the dark."LOL - your description is all too true. We live in an area with many neighborhoods that match that depiction exactly. I often wonder how families can live in huge homes with expansive, perfectly manicured yards and yet there's no evidence they actually do anything except stay inside and watch TV.For many years J.H. Kunstler has been writing about the "tragic comedy of suburban sprawl" and now he has a podcast devoted to the topic:http://kunstlercast.com/Some might say he goes off the deep end, but most of what he predicted in his earlier books is coming to pass. It doesn't bode well for the folks who live in manicured suburbs far from their workplace.
Jim Kunstler and I swapped E-mails a few times. I read his first two books and was so taken that I found his E-mail and wrote him my thoughts. He wrote back a really great reply and we continued in kind for a bit. He's sharp as a whip and has a great sense of humor.
That was very good Jer
Most of this McMansion and Garagemahal building over the past twenty years was fueled, literally, by cheap oil. That era is over. There will always be a group of people who can afford to live in opulence, but I think the days of the 4K-8K SF home for Joe Average and his family of four are over.
As utility rates and the cost of driving increase, it will force many of these families out of their over-sized digs and into something smaller and closer to where they work. The big question is what is going to happen to these huge, poorly-built houses when no one wants them anymore? Obsolete cars go to the crusher, what happens to obsolete houses?
We tear them down and burn the wood for heat and cooking fuel?
<Obsolete cars go to the crusher, what happens to obsolete houses?>Probably the same thing they have done for years, turn them into multiple units and crowd families into them.It would seem to be a rosy future for remodelers.they had other names, but we have probably had mcmansions ever since they decorated the first cave
Barry E-Remodeler
BarryE
Some Obsolete cars are restored and become prized collector items. Some obsolete homes are also restored and become fine homes..
The differance is the old realitors axium.. location, location, location!
either one needs good bones to start with
Barry E-Remodeler
BarryE
So those cheap Model T's that are lovingly restored are what?
Wanted?
Barry E-Remodeler
"Probably the same thing they have done for years, turn them into multiple units and crowd families into them."The McMansions around here are in neighborhoods with covenants and zoning codes that don't permit MF occupancy. I suppose if things get really bad that all could change, but for now the vacant ones will just sit, waiting for new owners or midnight copper thieves.