What is it about human nature that would cause anyone to want to live in a 6,000 square foot house?
November 01, 2006
HousingPanic Stupid Question of the Day
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56 comments:
To compensate for having a small penis?
Shitboxes like the one in the picture are sprouting up all over Denver. They infest historic neighborhoods around here like a disease. They are ugly, tasteless and boring. Their owners should be shot.
I have never understood why we just can't build more Levit Towns. The Luxury homes and condos have made life miserable for first time home buyers,
BTW -- what the hell is that piece of crap in the picture? If that is what is called a "McMansion" then I really had a misunderstanding of what they are.
What is it about human nature that would cause anyone to want to live in a 6,000 square foot house?
Greed? A need to achieve status? A desire to create a showy display?
Until recently, initially-cheap, easy to obtain ARM financing (with a negative amortization option) could be used to purchase overpriced McMansions in far flung, gated communities. With the assured expectation of 20% yearly appreciation, a king sized debt box could be called an investment.
Until recently, the huge rooms could be heated and cooled with cheap oil-based energy. Commuting 100 miles per day, in 12 mile per gallon SUVs, could also be easily afforded, since gasoline was cheap. The huge expenditures incurred while living a go-go, glitzy lifestyle could be paid for with home equity lines of credit.
But, this situation changed in the middle of 2005. As today's movie feature, THE END OF SUBURBIA points out, the ritzy suburbs of today will become the ghettos of tomorrow.
As today's movie feature, THE END OF SUBURBIA points out, the ritzy suburbs of today will become the ghettos of tomorrow.
------------------------
Yeah, the McMansions could be partitioned up into tenements for the lower classes. That is often the pattern when a civilization (or an area) goes into decline.
The POS in the picture really is quite ugly. It has no style; it's just an oversized box squeezed onto the lot.
It depends on the circumstances. I have a total of 5000 SF of space for three people, split across three buildings on 5 acres of land. Our 3 BR home is 2600 SF, there is a 400 SF office, and then we have a 1000 SF workshop.
I own and operate two businesses from this set up and my morning "commute" consists of walking 75 feet over to the office bulding or the shop. Am I a hog for having this much space? Would I be better off leasing part of some office/warehouse building 20 miles away and driving every day? Heck no.!
What town would allow something like the house in that picture? Good God!
In one of Kunstler's writings he quoted someone as saying: On the threshold of extinction, things can attain gigantic size.
I live in a 6,800 sq ft house, and I love it. I made enough money to buy it (in 1998) , and there is nothing wrong with that Keith. You are a bitter bitter person. What would make a person leave the country and live in an expensive flat in London? That question makes about as much sense as your's.
I know when you live in your own world you seem to think the people around make up a fair composition of the world.
But the world is not full of Fags. Some folks have children. Some folks are succesful enough to have 4 children.
lol
I love this blog... we've got every type of poster.. from the gleeful bubble watchers, to the defensive mc mansion owners!.
great work bringing together all the forces to do battle keith!
anon Wednesday, November 01, 2006 12:35:27 PM
said:
"But the world is not full of Fags."
Fantastic posting sir. Keep up the good work.
:)
I knew a woman who got...excited...by big interior spaces. Could be an art gallery or cathedral. Not making this up.
Having three kids does not explain the phenomemon. What used to be called "spoiling" them does. Trendiness. And walking into a place where the foyer goes up and up. At last, you've "arrived"! The rest of the world can only be impressed. Bigger is better.
I bet that woman had a big 'interior space' of her own that needed to be filled.
Is that house in Compton?
I own and operate two businesses from this set up and my morning "commute" consists of walking 75 feet over to the office bulding or the shop. Am I a hog for having this much space? Would I be better off leasing part of some office/warehouse building 20 miles away and driving every day? Heck no.!
I don't think Keith is talking about sensible folks like you. He is talking about people who need an oversized home to feel special. You are probably saving gas, auto wear and tear, not to mention less stress not having to commute and more time for your family.
This is happening in the town I work for. All 1950ish Ranch style homes, some D-bagger comes into town buys one of these ranch homes, tears it down and drops a Mini-McMansion smack dab in the middle, and puts a price tag on it for $500,000+.
A subdivision with one level homes and then this monstrosity, quite an ugly landscape for sure...But the Sheep Love it.
The issue isn't really the size, but the style... Form over substance. A 6000 sqft home could have been designed to fit the character and tenor of that community, but it would have been far more expensive to do so than it is to build a giant box.
Old neighborhoods by me often have 4000+ square foot Victorians (not counting basement or attic) next to 1200 square foot Bungalows, and it doesn't look strange or ostentatious at all. Of course, they didn't attempt to stuff them on ridiculously small lots.
And I to have a 2500SF home also, the above poster is correct with 2 kids running around, I need my own space to get away.
Compared to what I was brought up in (my parents home was small) I live in a castle...LOL!
I have to assume that no one told the idiot that built/bought that place that you NEVER build/buy the most expensive home on the street.
>> And I to have a 2500SF home also...
Damn, I didn't know they made trailers that big!
Because you lived in a 1 mil 800 sq ft house in California. Now wonder there are so many gays in California -- they're all living in small prison cells.
11 kids?
a coworker of mine is 11 of 11.
here is my stupid question of the day.
who the frack would eat vanilla ice cream.
i mean its plain, oridanry, and has no pizazz.
it must be just queers that like vanilla ice cream. yah, thats it, just queers.
/end sarcasm
I'm not sure that squeezing out the ankle biters is really a sign of success...as a woman that sounds like a nightmare to me. And I'm not even one of those frothing at the mouth bulldykes.
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
Percy Bysshe Shelley
What you guys are seeing here, I'm almost certain, is a house in Dallas. There are certain areas there where people are buying up old shacks like you see next to that fugly new house, bulldozing them, and building something that takes up the entire lot. If in the right area, people are paying in excess of $150,000 for something they are going to bulldoze, the lots are teeny tiny too. But, I guess thats the price they are willing to pay to live in a new home thats close to work (Dallas traffic makes you want to kill people).
A lot of times people don't even use most of the house. I had a job where I worked for a real estate agent and one of the things I did was take pictures of houses that he was selling. I'd go into these huge tract mc mansions and the people would only really be living in the master bedroom, kitchen and den. The rest of the rooms would be all dusty and sometimes didn't even have furniture.
Why aren't they building more Leavittowns?
It might have something to do with the fixed overhead involved with building *any* housing development. The cost of getting the development through planning and approval, overcoming legal challenges (if any), purchasing the property, etc., are similar whether you're building reasonably-sized houses or McMansions. So their economic incentive is to build the behemoths, for the larger mark-up they can (er, used to be able to) charge. It's not that the houses are truly better value for the buyer. Unless ego-enhancement is considered good value...
It's the same mindset that sank the US carmakers. Per-unit build cost wasn't too much different for a big luxo-barge than for a little econobox. But the luxo-barge provided a much bigger payoff.
why arent they building more levitt towns?
have you ever driven thru a KB home communitee.
my god, they are double wides, boxes of gray stucco and black roofs.
lived in st louis for a lil while, around the central west end they had beautiful victorians, during the hey day they we fabulous. then, like everything else, it turned down. they fell into ghettos. much like todays suburbia?
"Yeah, the McMansions could be partitioned up into tenements for the lower classes. That is often the pattern when a civilization (or an area) goes into decline."
Part of my family came from Baltimore, living one street down from the "rich" people's main drag. Huge old mansions on very large lots. Originally OLD MONEY, they are almost all now divided into apartments. The heirs/owners could in no way afford to live in them today,heat them,pay the taxes, etc.
I don't know, I just don't see todays suburbia turning into the ghetto, they are still relatively free of minorities, which is what makes the ghetto a ghetto afterall.
Pride and greed come to mind. Not thst these are problems for most people. Just deadly sins or daily living problems going back to biblical times.
Yeah your right devestment, I forgot about all those white ghettos.
>> And I to have a 2500SF home also...
Damn, I didn't know they made trailers that big!
-----------------
Another one trying to impress his Boyfriend.
Nothing wrong with the size of the house. But there is something wrong when the house is poorly constructed and the costs to occupy it are out of whack.
For instance, my 4800 sq. ft. house has an electric bill of an averge of $110/month. My old hosue of 865 sq. ft. had an average electric bill of $135. Very old and poorly insulated as opposed to the insulation I did myself on the current house.
The house looks like the ones you find in Belmont Shore area in Long Beach. Oh well, at least the owner was smart enough to have a garage so he won't have to park his Beamer on the street.
As for Honica; ghettos for white people are called "The Wrong Side of the Tracks"...
Want a white ghetto? Check out Apache Junction, AZ...
Recently I was in the capital city of an (comparatively wealthy) third world nation.
The future of Peak Oil is already there. Consider that paying the world price for oil means that many other nations have already had the effect of limited oil supply hit them: driving is very expensive for the average person, unlike the USA.
There, the nice parts of town are the ones in the middle of the city: good quality apartments in dense very walkable neighborhoods, with excellent services and transportation. Buses and trains ran frequently and even though traffic was slow, the distances so short that you can get places easily.
You can walk to the supermarket from your home---two blocks away---you select your food, pay, and then the delivery boy packs it up in stackable boxes and wheels them to your apartment (along with a few others on the route) 30 minutes later.
Along the way to the supermarket you had probably 3 coffee shops & bars, five fabulous restauraunts, specialty food like in Italy, and 15 other assorted shops.
Then, outside the center, the suburbs held the dreary and dangerous rundown poor neighborhoods, with nothing to do, go or see.
That's my f*cking house!
I have to fit my penis somewhere!
I need room for my wife's interior design ideas!
Where else can you fit 12 children? I'm a practicing Catholic and I practice alot!
My lazy, jobless relatives need a place to crash.
The goats need a room of their own.
I have to get away from my wife and kids sometimes.
I have 10 renters and they each need 500 square feet. They are essential in paying for the mortgage. Maybe I could make more rooms in the attic.
So I can make you people jealous.
maybe the owner is a sports nut and has a full sized basketball court on the main level, tennis upstairs and a swimming pool in the basement. maybe he shoots trap out the back porch. the house takes up so much of the lot, there probably isn't a lot of grass to mow in the summer - more time for b'ball!
No, but you made me laugh...
Thanks, I needed that....
Hypercompetitive capitalistic republican nonsense.
I hate this culture and its people. I hate republicans the most. Hope they all die on the golf course.
Hmm looking at the Photo a bit more, am I seeing a little Photoshop here??
The curb cut for the driveway opening is to far to the left.
Ehh! whatever the place looks silly, nice windows you got there, what are they 24x57 hahah! the crack addicts will think they died and went to heaven when they take over the place.
bork, that's the old driveway. There used to be two houses where that one now stands. If you look to the right in front of that car you'll see where they patched over the other old driveway on the right.
Well, maybe not. They sure shoehorned that puppy in there!
"To compensate for having a small penis?"
Precisely what that juxtaposition put me in mind of.
Remember this gem from the top of the bubble:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111901445_pf.html
(She grew up poor in West Virginia, with an outhouse and no running water at times, and made a decision early on that she would never live like that again.
"I wanted to become an executive of some sort," said Sproles, who did became a successful computer salesperson. "I wanted to have a cell phone and all that came with it. My vision was to have a big house, drive a big car. . . . I don't know where I got it from -- probably TV. I guess that's where I got it. Maybe 'Dallas.' ")
Precisely the kind of mentality that's been most vulnerable to this goatf--k. An emphasis on the appearance of success over the substance, which fits perfectly with the asymmetrical rewards of saving vs. debt in this culture.
That well insulated 4800 sqft house is probably making you and your family sick.
Ever wonder why allergy and respiratory illness rates have gone up so dramatically? It turns out a drafty home is a much healthier home. The air quality inside a well-insulated house is usually very poor. Expensive air purification systems are of little help overall.
Well, sometimes it is percieved value as a result of bubbles. Guess the bubbles keep a lot of people from seeing clearly through the fog. But the answer is still value.
For some it is the idea that 5% appreciation on $300,000 (the larger house) is better than 5% appreciation on a smaller house, say $100,000. If the cost difference between the two is close they choose the house they think will give them more back when they sell.
The other is value. You want a small, 1200 sq ft bungalow in the central city, price tag $350,000 and then see a house say ten miles out of the center-city that is 2800 sq ft for $350,000 and the buyer says, I'll take the larger house as it is percieved as a better buy.
It is human nature. Most will buy two tomatoes for $1 instead of one tomatoe for a $1 if offered the choice.
Doesn't make it right but the distortions in all of our economic models is skewed and subsidized.
Well, sometimes it is percieved value as a result of bubbles. Guess the bubbles keep a lot of people from seeing clearly through the fog. But the answer is still value.
For some it is the idea that 5% appreciation on $300,000 (the larger house) is better than 5% appreciation on a smaller house, say $100,000. If the cost difference between the two is close they choose the house they think will give them more back when they sell.
The other is value. You want a small, 1200 sq ft bungalow in the central city, price tag $350,000 and then see a house say ten miles out of the center-city that is 2800 sq ft for $350,000 and the buyer says, I'll take the larger house as it is percieved as a better buy.
It is human nature. Most will buy two tomatoes for $1 instead of one tomatoe for a $1 if offered the choice.
Doesn't make it right but the distortions in all of our economic models is skewed and subsidized.
Nice yard. The porch really adds dignity to building.
I think it's for status. Most people are under the false impression that everyone else is doing better than they are. These folks buy a McMansion to compete against their friends, co-workers and family members. What fools!
I certainly don't care about status. I want a house that is one level and easy to maintain outselves. A huge house only means more cleaning and costs more to maintance, heat and to insure.
I'd be in heaven with a 1930's-1940's house with around 2000 sq. ft. That's plenty big for us.
Oh My God.
-Comment on the photo
Some poor idiot built a house just like that here in San Diego, only problem is, it is in the worst area of town, gangs, drugs, assults, murder.....he must have been from out of town!
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