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Return of the cookie-cutter house
Wall Street Journal via MSN Real Estate ^ | Dawn Wotapka, The Wall Street Journal

Posted on 02/04/2008 11:22:29 PM PST by Lorianne

As home builders feel the squeeze from the housing slump, they are aiming to save money by reducing the choices they offer to buyers.___ Coast to coast, Lennar Corp.'s potential home buyers see different scenery, but they might encounter the same kitchen faucets.

The nation's second-largest home builder is whittling down options and moving toward a one-faucet-fits-similar-price-points model, seeing standardization and simplification as tools in a cost-cutting drive aimed at saving millions of dollars and surviving the housing slump.

Other home builders are taking similar steps. Beazer Homes USA says it reduced its carpet offerings by 85%. Pulte Homes cut back to 400 floor plans from more than 2,000, and Centex cut its roughly 4,500 plans in half, and more reductions are under way.

Variety, builders have realized, costs money. That wasn't much of a problem during housing's heyday, when gross margins were as fat as 25%. Now margins are thin, and builders' stocks are in tatters; one index has them down more than 55% in the past year. Saving money has gained urgency.

"When you can raise prices every Monday morning, like it was during the boom time, it's hard to get the organization's attention on something as mundane as lowering cost," said Pulte Chief Executive Richard J. Dugas Jr.

(Excerpt) Read more at realestate.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
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To: durasell
I wonder if it’s still a private residence...

Fallingwater hasn't been a private residence in 50 years. The Kaufman family turned it over to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy -- and I'm sure got a hefty tax deduction. The Kaufman's actually spent very little time in the house. It was built as a summer home and used through the 40s and 50s as such. The house itself is cold and drafty with high moisture. The kitchen is about the size of a closet.

From a maintenance standpoint, it is a money pit. They had to rebuild the upper patio which was in collapsing.

I have visited it a number of times and it is wonderful to look at, but as far as a residence, I much rather have the guest house which is far more comfortable than the main house.

61 posted on 02/05/2008 7:48:16 AM PST by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: durasell

“I’m not a fan of Wright’s Usonian houses. Talk about cookie cutter!”

I hate FLW’s architecture. Garbage.


62 posted on 02/05/2008 8:26:49 AM PST by TexanToTheCore (If it ain't Rugby or Bullriding, it's for girls.........................................)
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To: TexanToTheCore

Saying you like something to sound classy, doesn’t make you classy. It just ensures you’ll be eating a lot of food you don’t care for throughout your life.

I’m mixed on FLW. I like Fallingwater and some of his more traditional designs. Not a big fan of the far out stuff.


63 posted on 02/05/2008 10:33:54 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: PennsylvaniaMom

The builders added far more steel reinforcement than FLW called for... because it was blindingly obvious that it would collapse under its own weight rapidly by his design.

Even with this steel added behind the architects back its still suffering cracks and damage due to being underengineered.

Its a beautiful property, but he grossly underengineered it. He was driven completely by estetics.


64 posted on 02/05/2008 10:38:36 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: HamiltonJay; PennsylvaniaMom

He must have learned his lesson. The Johnson Wax Headquarters is over-engineered. When they tested the tulip-shaped supports, they held something like twice the weight required.


65 posted on 02/05/2008 10:42:41 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: Ditto
LOL...and spot on about the kitchen. Our first home was a tiny split entry w/a postage stamp sized kitchen that was actually bigger than the FLW Fallingwater kitchen...this was pointed out to me everytime I complained of my kitchen's tininess...

Since you have visited there alot, here is my other gripe (other than the coldness/dampness) I didn't like (I know taste is subjective) the built-in furniture. Almost everything was/is stationary...I remember being on a tour and remarking (quietly to my friend) 'wouldn't you like to change a room around?' only to be stared down like 'you are for real? Stunning setting and great ambience, but you are right...not 'living in' friendly.

66 posted on 02/05/2008 11:58:24 AM PST by PennsylvaniaMom (I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them. Jane Austen.)
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To: Rb ver. 2.0
I met a guy going through a divorce who was living in a wired, 10 x 12 storage shed, a bit smaller than the one shown in your photo, at the back of his property while his wife lived in the house.

Now that is some serious cave time! lol.

67 posted on 02/05/2008 12:02:26 PM PST by GOP Poet
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To: RSmithOpt

68 posted on 02/05/2008 12:03:17 PM PST by the_devils_advocate_666
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To: Clock King

Is that a “clear cut” I see??


69 posted on 02/05/2008 12:08:05 PM PST by babble-on
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To: Steely Tom
The idea of mass produced, affordable private homes for ordinary people has always filled the Intelligencia with anger and disgust.

That is certainly true here in Vermont. The affordable neighborhood I live in could never be built today. It's for the good of the environment of course. The only things that can be built today are McMansions on 5+ acres or 'highrise' condos.

70 posted on 02/05/2008 12:20:39 PM PST by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: Lorianne; durasell
The Levitt brother would be proud.

Probably the most successful prefab houses, however, were the Sears bungalows. The NW and SW sides of Chicago are almost completely dominated by these classics.

71 posted on 02/05/2008 12:22:31 PM PST by Clemenza (Ronald Reagan was a "Free Traitor", Like Me ;-))
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To: MHGinTN

Is it on a 4,500 sq ft lot?


72 posted on 02/05/2008 12:24:07 PM PST by RobRoy
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To: Clemenza

Levitt learned his trade in the Navy during WWII building barracks.


73 posted on 02/05/2008 12:24:50 PM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell
Correct. Got killed when they expanded to Latin America, however. There are still Levittowns outside of Caracas and San Juan, believe it or not.

Of course, about 20 miles south of me is the New Jersey Levittown, now called Willingboro. It is notable because it was built in response to criticisms about the Levitts refusing to sell to blacks at the time (Levittown/Willingboro, NJ continuing to be a stronghold of the black middle class to this day).

74 posted on 02/05/2008 12:28:26 PM PST by Clemenza (Ronald Reagan was a "Free Traitor", Like Me ;-))
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To: Moonman62

It is better to live in a corner of the roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.


75 posted on 02/05/2008 12:31:08 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: PennsylvaniaMom

Agree. It’s a nice work of art, but IMHO, the Kaufman’s got ripped.


76 posted on 02/05/2008 12:31:54 PM PST by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: Lorianne

We’ve had cookie cutter homes since Levittown after World War II. I hate those kinds of houses.


77 posted on 02/05/2008 12:38:35 PM PST by DesScorp
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To: the_devils_advocate_666

one could put on wheels, leave the lattuce....


78 posted on 02/05/2008 1:11:44 PM PST by rusureitflies? (OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD! There, I said it. Prove me wrong.)
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To: RobRoy

20,000 ... If it were not a trapazoidal shaped lot, it would be a half acre. Montgomery, AL area.


79 posted on 02/05/2008 1:48:51 PM PST by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: agarrett

Huh, the type of ‘McMansions’ going up around here aren’t affordable by the average working couple. And quite a few of the ones who did somehow manage to obtain a mortgage on them are now finding themselves in sheriff’s auction, unable to pay that mortgage.

I truly wish affordable, reasonable housing *was* going up around here. I look at so many of the developments in what was beautiful farmland a few years ago and think ‘Why do 4 people need a house that huge?’


80 posted on 02/05/2008 8:25:32 PM PST by ktscarlett66 (Face it girls....I'm older and I have more insurance....)
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