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 ...
Those restrictions usually come from the people in the McMansions.
We bought a home in Ca. for 300k and sold it for 800k. It was a 2000 sq ft home that needed lots of work. We just moved up to our million dollar home. It's a 3400 sq ft home that has been redone totally.
We started doing the financing, and we figured we were going to be spending more on fixing up our old home.
The only thing that is bad is our taxes. We were paying property tax on a 300K home, and now we're paying property taxes on a million dollar home. Ouch!!!!
Historical neighborhood? Be careful what you wish for.
And does bad things to your property taxes.
We're in our early 40s, and we've managed well in California. We bought our first home when we were both working as software engineers about 12 years ago. I stopped working about 9 years ago. Now we have 3 kids.
We just bought our 2nd home 2 months ago.
We made 1/2 million dollars on our first home. I couldn't believe it. I'm from Texas and homes don't appreciate like they do in California. I hope we make as much on our 2nd home. When it's time to retire, we can sell our home and buy a much more affordable home and use our home equity for our retirement.
Then you can sell your house for big bucks & move someplace more to your liking with money left over.
Let's say Intel offers you a job in the San Jose area paying 150,000 per year- say you have 3 kids. Could you make it? Today, not ten years ago. Today.
I'm doing fine, and will make my way because I see clearly; only a little indecision... .but for those who have to make it- They'll leave California, and all that will be left are a bunch of people who made money of the chance appreciation of housing- Not exactly a stable economy.
Me too, with 2555 Ft, and worse----I have a log home!!! Oh, the shame of it all---AND==MORE---
I have it all on 5 (yes FIVE) ACRES.
But, what if you don't want to move? What if the place you are living is VERY convenient to work, the doctor, a hospital, the highway, etc., and you don't want to move? What if you are in what you consider to be the perfect place? What then?
You shameless b*stard!
I only have 2 acres and two tractors. I'll see you in court!
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?""
Because the people who are BUILDING the new MCMansions are moving out of and leaving behind the 35 + y/o homes that are affordable for the younger persons.
The biggest thing I read here is that the people just coming our of college just don't get that they cannot START at the top of the living standard. You have to WORK your way to that status.
Oh, I forgot, too many of them have the Dobie Gillis gene and they don't want to work. They think that the "work" it took for them to get a paper degree from a college somewhere automatically exempts them from a lifetime of productive work for money which they then can spend on their standard of living. They all have $45,000 + SUV's, mega bucks stereo systems and HD TV's ETC, but they don't have a clue how to own a home.
The change in the capital gains tax laws is driving this to some extent, but that in turn is also creating jobs for the building industry and it's suppliers.
Sheesh, Freud had it right.
Actually, many of these limo-libs already have the biggest one on the block. They just don't want someone with a bigger one to move in next door.
If all the illegals were to be properly accounted for, the answer to your question is a resounding YES.
If you don't have former third world residents living 16 to a swelling, then you aren't living in a large town.
I don't know about the rest of the US, but where I live, residential overcrowding is a problem and several local jurisdictions have either passed laws to deal with the problem (by restricting the number of people that may live in one residential unit) or are considering doing so.
Most of the neighborhoods so affected are older ones where the houses are less expensive.
Thanks, I just about choked to death on my blueberry muffin.
LOL What should you do? You should get down on your knees & thank God that you are in this place. You could be living in a house that you will never be able to get your money out of. The neighborhood could be turning to drugs & crime instead its getting better. Your neighborhood is convenient to all those things & that is the reason other people want to live there too. Smile you picked a good one. ;9)
Sustainable- people are borrowing from the future to pay for a standard of living today- what will be left tomorrow? There will be nothing left to borrow from if all this is, is smoke and mirrors.
The other thing that is lost here is that there are people who don't want Mcmansions and move into older neighborhoods to get away from them.
There are also people who don't care about "moving up" and live in the same house for 35+ years, paying the entire mortgage, doing the needed maintenance along the way and investing the spare cash.
I like big parks, big families, and big dinners.
But when it comes to women... I like them petite with big... never mind.
Me too!
Not under Prop 13 in Calif. Taxes frozen at maximum 2% increase yearly unless you remodel or sell it.
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