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?
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.
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.
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 never understood the attraction of these things. I would prefer to splurge on a better lot than on a huge amount of wasted space.