Posted on 02/14/2009 10:38:05 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The McMansion is dying, and Mandy Multerer is helping to kill it.
"People say times are changing," said Multerer, a marketing director for K. Hovnanian Homes, which is doing a brisk business selling smaller un-mansions.
"It's just like people don't need that giant SUV, but instead buy a smaller car," she said. "It is the same with houses."
With that, she as much as delivered a eulogy for the McMansion — the 1990s-style monument to suburban excess.
The median size of a new Twin Cities home will drop 11 percent to 2,300 square feet in 2009, according to the Builders Association of the Twin Cities — a plunge after decades of steady increases. Nationally, the average size of a new home fell by 9 percent in 2008's third quarter alone.
"McMansions were a fad," said Bob McAdam, owner of Landmark Custom Homes of Lake Elmo, who has built many of them.
The immediate cause of the drop in home sizes is the recession — homebuyers don't have the money for large homes and can't borrow it. But other causes will be much longer-lasting, say experts:
* Households are increasingly older, smaller and childless. Aging baby boomers favor one-story ramblers or town homes.
* Housing's reputation as a fail-safe investment has been destroyed. Buyers are less likely to snap up oversized homes as good investments and are more likely to buy only what they need.
* Environmental awareness is growing, and McMansions are notoriously wasteful of energy and building materials.
Tastes are changing. Homebuyers see large houses — and especially two-story great rooms — as excessive and showy. Instead, many builders say customers want "cozy" and smaller homes.
To be sure, thousands of Minnesotans are living happily in their super-sized suburban homes. They like the vast yards for their children, the dramatic two-story great rooms and the showy I-have-arrived exteriors.
But that kind of housing is in retreat.
ECONOMY AND MODESTY
The drop in house sizes startled experts, who have watched the size of homes ratchet upward since records have been kept.
In 1950, the average American family was bigger yet lived in a house of about 1,100 square feet. Today's average is more than twice that — even though families are smaller.
The recession has reversed the growth of homes not only because buyers have less money, but also because the wealthy feel guilty about any display of wealth.
"Homebuyers today do not want splashy. They do not want to walk into a big two-story living room," said Amy Zuccone, a 15-year Realtor in the Twin Cities.
"They do not want to say: 'Look at my house! Look at me!'"
Several builders equated the change of mood with the change of presidents — pairing McMansions with the Texas-style bravado of George W. Bush and the smaller houses with the caution of Barack Obama.
After the recession ends, McMansions will keep fading away, said Steve Melman, spokesman for the National Association of Home Builders.
That's because of a trend toward older and smaller households — which means more one-story ramblers and town homes.
"It just gets harder for people to go up and down stairs," Melman said.
Another sign the McDownfall is permanent is the fact that the flight to smaller homes is not driven by cost. Many of the smaller homes are often just as expensive.
Homebuilder McAdam created a house in Stillwater selling for $549,000. The main floor has just 1,600 square feet. But with a modern floor plan, it is packed with luxurious touches and exotic wood trim.
"There are lots of goodies, but it is just scaled down," McAdam said, walking past the pillars to the kitchen computer nook. "You can have the things you want without having all that space to heat."
THE 'GREEN' EFFECT
One year ago, homebuilder K. Hovnanian specialized in impressive homes of more than 5,000 square feet. Today the company is winning in a losing market because it has slashed the size of its homes.
The company will soon unveil a 1,200-square-foot home — which is like a parking lot for eight cars. It is 14 percent smaller than the company's previous smallest home.
At $300,000, it won't undercut its foreclosure-sale competition, but Multerer predicted it would sell well because of a lean, practical floor plan.
"Now is the time to be economical," she said.
Finally, McMansions might come in a variety of colors — but they are never "green." Indeed, they are the most environmentally harmful form of housing ever created.
"They really are the worst," said Joshua Houdek of the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
They consume more material to build, more energy to heat and cool, and more water and chemicals for their yards. The oversized lots spread people out, consume more land, gobble up natural areas and make mass transit impossible — and long gas-guzzling commutes mandatory.
What helps the environment, Houdek said, is encouraging people to live near one another and their workplaces.
"I think the death of the McMansion is a step toward a more sustainable community for us all," he said.
The net effect of the downsizing will be seen in the Parade of Homes, beginning Feb. 28. The annual builders' showcase will include many smaller and redesigned homes, said Joan Knight, who has handled Parade publicity for 10 years.
Knight recalled the 1998 publication of the seminal book "The Not So Big House," by Sarah Susanka. It was supposed to herald the era of smaller, better-designed homes — yet until recently it seemed like just another utopian dream.
"Finally, right now," said Knight, "it is happening."
Freaking idiots. They still aren't learning.
I have four kids and live in an 1800 sq. foot house. Sometimes it feels small, but overall, the floor plan is pretty good, and I think if we HAD to, we would survive on smaller. I had a policy when homebuying that I never wanted my mortgage higher than I could afford if I had to go on unemployment. I was laid-off twice in '01 and became extra- cautious.
It should have ended a long time ago. Never could understand why people with one or two kids wanted to buy one of these huge monstrosities. Most of them are ugly and built like crap anyway.
But not at $500K, or even half that.
Bush had a small ranch house, while Obama had a mansion.
Well, isn’t this just peachy.
The “McMansion” era is over.
Who defines excess and have they themselves been cleared by our komrades at the the US Dept. of Kepitelist Excess Reduction?
I’ll tell you what’s over: life as a free human in America.
You all belong to the government now—you can split hairs about just how much of you belongs to the government if it makes you feel better.
Not that today’s Americans would do anything to resist it anyway.
Just go back to your cable TV, your social internet sites, your porn or your MP3 collection and try to ignore it.
Freedom is overrated anyway, right?
Coming soon from your President. The push to tell you how many feet you will be allowed to live in. It’s for the children’s future you know. How dare you deny them , just because you didn’t abort them and had them. Just seems hypocritical to me. But what do I know.
I think the new push will be "living in as many feet as you can afford" which is the real reason why the "McMansion" era is ending.
Why is it that so many conservatives think that any actions taken towards common sense and fiscal responsibility are somehow threatening and smacking of downright communism?
Te pioneers were a helluva lot more conservative than those guys and they didn’t go off into the prairies and build McMansions. they built what they could afford to build, afford to heat and afford to defend. How much house does a small family or just 2 folks need, really? Enough room to hide the guns and store the extra supplies, not so large and flashy as to attract the wrong kind of attention. Like the biilboard said, they’ll eat the fat ones first.
Most of the McMansions I've seen have been on tiny lots for the size of the house. What good is it to buy a half-million dollar house if you can reach out your bedroom window and touch your neighbor's half-million dollar house.
Some of them really are thrown together cheaply. I was in one recently where the tile in the bathrooms was laid directly on the plywood subfloor with no backer board. Naturally the tiles were shifting around and coming loose. This was gross corner cutting by the tiling contractor but even the McMansions that are built correctly tend to be kind of cheap. I would much rather have a smaller home that is well made.
I like room to roam.
Oh well, one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
The McMansion gets a bad rap. It’s a way to maximize profits and perceived value from limited capital. Land prices have inflated in relation to building materials and labor. That’s the reverse of the way things were in the 50’s.
The more value you can build into a house while minimizing the use of the scarce resource (land), the more profitable to the builder and the more valuable to the purchaser.
Most of them are built poorly. That’s another issue altogether. Mostly related to the use of poorly-trained, underpaid laborers being pushed by builders for quantity rather than quality.
“I think the new push will be “living in as many feet as you can afford” which is the real reason why the “McMansion” era is ending.”
That is true. As we are seeing from the financial meltdown, in no way could this country afford the McMansion lifestyle (yes, I know, a few people always could...but I’m talking about millions). We are simply getting back to where we should be based on our depleted industrial base, which may be a right around the 1100 sq-ft size (i.e. we don’t produce much anymore...thanks to liberals).
Welcome to Scottsdale, AZ.
Many of the high-end developments on Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd, and near the Mayo Clinic on Shea Blvd, were like this. Yuck.
Cheers!
Or first house was 1,800 square feet. And after 6 years, 1 kid, 2 dogs, and another kid on the way, we determined we needed more space.
So we stepped up to a 3,100 square foot home that suits us just fine. Sure, bigger would be better and some additional features would be liked, but it gets the job done. The only real complaint is that the master bedroom is 400 square feet. Kinda a waste of space. Would have prefered it distributed in the loft or other bedrooms. But it does allow for some additions to a master suite that most can't do. Such as a couch, several chairs, huge TV and audio system, etc... Its almost like having the ability to build a 2nd living room in your bedroom.
“I’d rather have the land than the house. I don’t need a McMansion. I don’t need the headaches to heat them. If I had five kids, I may have a different opinion about that, but that 1600 ft place would be great for me.”
well I’m raising 7 kids and we have no desire for McMansion.
We have 6 bedrooms that fit nicely in a smaller home - an affordable home.
The bigger the house, the more you have to clean, and the more you have to heat.
Exactly. We pushed home ownership as a civil right for everyone and it never should've been. Ideally, we should only have about 50% of the country living in homes they own. In order to be competitive, we need a mobile workforce able to pack up and move without being tethered to homes they can barely afford and can't sell.
I never understood the attraction of these things. I would prefer to splurge on a better lot than on a huge amount of wasted space.
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