Big house a symbol of an American tragedy

The Boston Globe ^ | 1-28-07 | Beverly Beckham

[BronzePencil]

It sits on top of a hill, overlooking a busy road -- a big, pink stucco house that dwarfs all the houses around it. It is conspicuous consumption at its worst, or at its best, depending on your point of view.

It's not the biggest house around. There are many bigger -- one just a few miles from where I live, not on top of a hill but practically on the offramp of a highway. So many smaller houses have been knocked down to make room for these Goliaths. This is called progress.

I don't understand who lives in these massive homes or who can afford them

[beyond the sea]

Yoi.............. he does need a landscaper.

;-)

Keep those borders open ..........

[VOA]

Know I know at least one person responsible for "climate change".

John "Clear-Cutting" Edwards

[VOA]

Know I know at least one person responsible for "climate change".

of course I meant:
NOW I know of at least one person responsible for "climate change".

[geopyg]

"Think of the money a family could save by living in a 50's house and investing those savings."

I know when we bought our house the sales guy "calculated" what we could "afford" for the mortgage. We could have bought a REALLY nice house.

Instead we went for a mortage about 1/3 of what he calculated we could "afford". Jobs changes and three kids later I'm sure glad I don't have to pay 3x more on my mortgage! (Although its even less 'cuz of refinancing - but adding the extra to the principle each month.

I'm always reminded of that commercial with the guy with all the fancy stuff. At the end he says "And how can afford all of this stuff? Because I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!"

[goldstategop]

A big house is for family with kids and whatnot. If you're a single or empty nesters then you'll want to scale down. I needed more space to accomodate my library and home office. That's why I ended up buying a 3 bedroom condo.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[goldstategop]

The rich can afford homes in choice locations. They can afford more than one home. For the rest of us, one is all we can find time to run.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[dalereed]

"The average yearly salary was $2,500 too."

a little short, a plasterer that worked full time in 54 made $5700.

That was what I was making in 58 when we got married and we managed to save $7,000 for a down payment on our house in 66 that cost $34,000. In 66 when we bought it I waa making $3.75/hr., it's not that hard to do.

[Lx]

I'd be willing to bet a beer that if you saw what they did in the flesh, you'd agree with me. I don't care about development, I do care about crappy developing.

I also failed to mention that El Dorado had a building moratorium because of water availability yet this development slid right through. I don't know all of the details; my Realtor told me about it.

Now the local supervisors have approved an Indian casino. Great, more traffic and people spending their money in a place that doesn't pay their fair share of taxes to the local administration.

They swore up and down they'd never approve it, then they said only if an offramp was approved now that's approved so here comes gaming. I'm sure you'd like to share your residential neighborhood with a casino, right? Luckily for me, it's a couple of miles away.

[snoringbear]

Yeah, for sure. This person, probably a social worker, who lives in the most liberal state in the country, probably doesn't even realize that it's most likely fellow liberals who live in those big houses in the Boston area. In fact, I saw a survey a few weeks back (on CNN no less) stating that while conservatives are far more generous when it comes to giving to charities, liberals are much more affluent. So, seems to me that this person should go whine to her fellow lib's there in the great state of Massachusetts, heh, heh....

[Myrddin]

Not only do they all look alike, they barely have enough room to get a lawnmower between the houses and yet the houses must have at least a 3000 sq foot floor plan.

The minimum floor plan on my street is 3500 sq ft. My house is the small one on the street. Only 3900 sq ft. It does sit on 1/3 acre. It is a custom house. Not to my specs, but to the specs of the original builder. Every house on the street is different. All owner occupied.

A couple new, custom houses were built about 300 feet from my house. Both are over 6,000 sq ft. Both have a large theater built in the basement. The developer lives in one of them. After a year in the house, he figured to sell it and build another. The house was on the market for a year at $797,000. The "for sale" sign was removed in the last few weeks. I assume he gave up. A realtor would have had a brass band and balloons if the house had sold. It doesn't bother me. A successful sale would have driven property values way up. I own mine free and clear. Just property taxes. I really don't want those going higher.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

As a plaster you would have made higher then average salary. Today you would probably make higher then average salary as well.

Actually I was a little off, I just checked and it was $3,080.00. Minimum wage was $0.75 an hour.

[goldstategop]

The cost of living has gone up but proportionately a house in most parts of the country costs the same as it does in 1954. The only exceptions are California and New York where most homes sell in the 500K range. The national median is $220K.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[The_Media_never_lie]

We have a lot of stuff.

We have way too much stuff. I hope we can get rid of a lot over the next year.

[Alouette]

Two of us live in a 4600 square foot house

Sweet. Who cleans?

[dalereed]

"Today you would probably make higher then average salary as well."

No, today the illegals have taken over the construction industry and wages are about the same as they were 20 years ago if you don't count fringe benefits, if you count them they are about 20% lower.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Yep. If you calculate by square footage houses are about the same as they were back then.

[razorback-bert]

I agree with you'll, let me add that they want the part of the country they live in to be like England. Small quaint villages for workers, lazy rivers with mill ponds, commons with lush pastures and wilderness in fly over country.

[Howlin]

Not me. :-)

[Howlin]

Link your own damn bandwidth.

[AZLiberty]

It is astonishing how much Americans expect in a house. This is largely a reflection of our wealth, but is sadly also a reflection of the tax incentives for home ownership (or home buyership, since the primary incentive is the tax deduction for mortgage interest).

This incentive drives house prices higher for two reasons. One is the obvious: lower interest rates mean that people can afford to pay more for a given house or buy a better (i.e., larger) house than the otherwise would. The second is that it makes housing more attractive as an investment. If you can borrow money at half the market rate, but only to buy a house (or two), and housing prices are generally going up, then a house will be a more attractive investment to you than anything else with similar fundamentals.

What this means is that a lot more money is put into housing in this country than if the housing market were a free market. This means further that people have a lot more money tied up in housing than they "should" have, but worse, people have more than they "should" of their future cash flow precommitted to heating, air conditioning, furnishing, decorating, and maintaining their larger house.

This is part of the reason that American couples both "have to" work 60-hour weeks, while their European counterparts are standing around in pubs or sitting around in cafes enjoying life. Compounding this is that many American homes really are built shoddily, basically just well enough to survive the 30-year mortgage. This creates the phenomen of the "disposable" neighborhood, where a suburb is born, grows and thrives for a time, and then falls into disrepair, waiting for urban renewal.

In Europe, homes are built to last for generations, so that a free reserve of capital -- rather than a generator of waste -- is passed down through the ages.