Posted on 08/21/2004 12:27:52 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Are you young and single ? A lot of people would want to know.
I am sooooo glad I live in fly-over country when I hear figures like this.
I live in a 50's ranch neighborhood that has a new development going up across the street. The land alone (half acre lots) is going for $90,000. That is UNHEARD of in these parts.
Six years ago I bought a nice 3 bedroom ranch and 3/4 acre corner lot for $140,000.
Tip #1: "Buy the property yourself, which is the only way you have any legitimate right to determine how it is used."
Tips #2 through #5: See tip #1.
Not exactly. The area where I live has undergone a few years of unprecedented property appreciation. Some 2500sf homes which sold for $70K 20 years ago are now selling for $450K. That's a house that's probably been paid off, so the sale price is pure profit (no tax if held for more than 2 years).
Combine that with the fact that the seller is probably someone in their late 40s to early 50s (their prime earning years) with a good income and has been investing for 15 or 20 years.
That makes a $700 to $800K house within reach of some who makes less than a doctor's income.
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To whom? Apparently somebody could afford them.
and buying/speculating on houses N. of Ventura and the Grapevine for cash.
Good for them. Now the prices of their new houses will either go up or down. If they go up, that means the demand for them has gone up (i.e., people are buying them). If the prices go down, it means that housing is becoming more affordable.
Do you know many professions including medicine that can afford a mortgage of 600,000 dollars if they have to purchase the investment without the help of mommy and daddy-
That's calculable. A 600,000 mortgage at 5% for 30 years would have a mortgage payment of $3220.93 per month. The threshold for "affordable" housing is canonically given as a mortgage payment that is less than a third of your gross income. So the threshold in this case is $116,000 per year. Yes, there are a lot of professions where one could technically afford this mortgage.
which I suspect is how many of the flamers on this board "earned" the houses that they live.
If people have such resources available, then they can afford more, as far as the market is concerned. The market doesn't know or care who "earned" their houses, any more than it knows who "deserves" to make $116,000 per year.
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When fortunes change, and the Mcmansion becomes the Mc boarding house, with heaps of illegals, then the law and order folk want a crackdown..everyone wants zoning laws to protect their property, and they want the right to circumvent those laws when it's convenient. That's America.
6. Start a pig farm in the back yard.
"Personally, I think about 1800 square feet is ideal. Large enough to have breathing room but not so big and not a McMansion..."
Me, I think that double that is just about right. Guess it all depends on what you do in your home, and I need space to entertain and work. Plus a huge garage for all those projects, heh, heh...
Amendment V
"nor shall private property be taken for public use without compensation."
If a community wants to "preserve" a historical district, then the community must compensate the private property owners for the cost to preserve the property in the manner in which the community wishes for it to preserved.
Remember the "preservation" is for "public use."
It's a violation of the zoning laws. When they try to sell their house, I will make sure the buyer knows that the county never inspected the plumbing, the electrical wiring, the foundation, the roof, nor the fireplace.
Why? Well, because they went to the county to try to get rid of my beehives.
Revenge is a dish which is best eaten cold. ;^)
I am working on ways to pull off a property here along the coast; but I'm not sure I want to pay for a lot the same it would cost me for a ranch in Idaho along a river bed.
If all you attract are retiree's, then all you are those not producing. The renters, are the young. The professionals are all looking for jobs outside the state.
What is left?
Ask the people building/living in the McMansions...They likely won't have the same sentiments.
Are you guilt ridden?
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