The monster house next door. 5 Tips: Preventing a "McMansion" next to your bungalow.

CNN ^ | 8/20/04 | Gerri Willis

[lowbridge]

For many Americans, bigger is better when it comes to their homes. The facts speak for themselves: According to the Census Bureau, the average home size has swelled 40 percent since the early 70's.

According to National Association of Homebuilders, 19 percent of homes built in 2003 were 3,000 square feet or more. But the appetite for larger and larger homes has run afoul of some. Namely those who've watched super-sized structures crop up next door.

How can you fight "McMansion" expansion where you live? Here are today's 5 Tips.

[bfree]

What in the heck are you talking about now? Good Lord, you must be a democrap.

[Porterville]

Read the trends

[bfree]

You are crazy, now I truly believe you live in California. Please stay there.

[Porterville]

Dude, you are from Iowa? or some where back east? One of the biggest issues for the housing throughout CA is the water rights. Many of the houses going up are going up in areas where water rights are worth more than gold.. There are water shortages through out the state especially along the Centeral and Southern Regions. Other issue are prevallent...

The Sellers are pushing low interest rates warning of eventual increases. However, any benefit from the interest rates being low have already been ofset by the appreciation of the houses.

Another issue is that there are fewer renters who will cover the mortgage payments of the loans. There are currently 400,00-500,000 dollar brand new homes renting for 1250-1500 dollars right around where I live.

There is a push push, to buy buy.... Mobile homes are selling for 250,000-300,000 dollars w/o the lot- 7 years ago these same mobile home were sold for 50,000 dollars.

[Porterville]

Speak to me, what do you know of California real estate?- How much is a lot in Sprinville? Arcata? Santa Barbara? California Valley? Monterey? Copertino? or good ole' San Luis Obispo?--- what are the trends? What are the risk....

[ccmay]

I could buy a house there with my milk money

Not where I live, you couldn't, not unless you own the whole dairy.

-ccm

[pageonetoo]

Negative. It is the result of years of thinking it through! It works, as planned!!! It still is in the finishing stages, but when ready, I intend to hold one hell of a welcome to my friends, including MOST Freepers!

[ccmay]

Get over the ancestor worship already; just because a house is old is no reason to think it is better than a new one (or vice versa).

If you like your house, bully for you. If you don't, tear it down and build one more to your liking. That's the American way.

I don't care if it's three hundred years old, it's your own damn property and you should build what you damn well please.

-ccm

[Porterville]

Here read this, this is a good explanation of why I'm concerned for CA

[familyop]

"How can you fight "McMansion" expansion where you live?"

This is psychological warfare from homeowners' associations, developers and lenders. There's hardly any such problem.

The real problem is that very few properties sell without opportunistic covenants attached, forbidding the building of any smaller houses. I recently saw news from a development where the who's-who of the homeowners' association is confiscating their neighbors' homes through the courts. ...binoculars, cameras, suits--the whole thing. In another development, "raw land" buyers see the covenants that are disclosed during the purchase. Then, after they've bought their property, the much more huge requirements of the "architectural committee" are revealed. The buyers stand cheated.

As the situation is now, it's more difficult than ever for small developers or homeowner-builders to build anything of value in any place of value. ...and far easier for the bank/builder teams to do so. Even interest rates are rigged to dissallow land owners from building their own houses, not to mention what county building departments will do in efforts to force individual home owner/builders to hire builders instead of building on their own.

Folks, you will start fighting for your property rights, or you will lose them all to become tenants.

And if someone wants to build or add on to a larger house next door to me, that's more than fine with me.

[pageonetoo]

Are you young and single ?

OLD AND FAT! Married to a sweet 33 yr old, I am 56, with a 15 yr old daughter, 2 cats, one dalmation, at home. Four other children gone...(we hope). We have assorted rats, mice, and other denizens outside, but not in the house... even very few spiders, after over a year of being fully contained...

[Cultural Jihad]

Ask the people building/living in the McMansions...They likely won't have the same sentiments.

That's certainly true when it comes to the California coastline, or inside a pristine park.

[Porterville]

Depletion of ground water in the San Joaquin Valley has caused the ground to sink U.S. Geological Survey Hundley, The Great Thirst, p. 428

[bfree]

I'll give you the same advice Sam Kinneson gave the Ethiopians -move to where the water is.

[Porterville]

That was my point- they aren't- read those links- I think we have some real troubles here in CA. In Tulare county the real estate market is just as hot as the rest of the state.... there is always a steady unemployment of 16%.... people are borrowing like mad on their equity.... I'm not exactly sure how this is going to play out.

[bfree]

It will probably end like all other bubbles, with a crash in prices. It happened in California before-late 80's and will probably happen again. Life goes on.

[RFEngineer]

How to stop a McMansion next door?

1. Offer to pay more for the land than any other potential neighbors.

There are no other ways to be sure unless it's YOUR property....... Otherwise, quit whining.

[Melas]

Large houses are nothing new. The predominance of large houses is nothing new. The problem isn't that large houses are being built. The problem is as the article hints at, a lack of smaller houses being built. The end result is a class stratification of home ownership.

[Melas]

But if homes aren't affordable, then why are new home construction and home ownership at all-time highs? Why is there no demand for small, "affordable" houses, but a huge demand for McMansions?

I would like to see some figures on blue collar ownerhip. I can't prove it, but I have a hunch that in the last 40 years, home ownership amongst blue collar families has fallen off markedly.

[Melas]

That's a cheap and unnecessary shot. Who the hell do you think you are, drawing unwarranted conclusions about how people here earned their living? I'd venture most of the successful posters here did it on their own; guilt ridden liberals are usually the ones who haven't earned their money.

I would agree 100%. Inherited wealth accounts for very little wealthy out there, and I imagine it's even lower amongst freepers, who seem to be much more industrious and involved than most.

However, that being said, Porterville's comments were obviously inspired by the rampant "Let them eat cake" attitude from many. While I don't agree with his conclusion, I certainly understand his indignation.