Death of the McMansion? (Houston, Dallas: condos, townhome, neighborhoods)

[emirate25]

Death of the 'McMansion': Era of Huge Homes Is Over - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Death-of-the-McMansion-Era-of-cnbc-1051033821.html?x=0 - broken link)

[mtgmike]

I think it's funny they mention fiscal responsibility as a reason to downsize. Id bet my five bedroom 3k sq ft house that the smaller, eco friendly designs they are coming out with are as expensive as the the large houses they are replacing. When they say "green" they are talking about cash(coming to them), not the planet.

[cheryjohns]

I am not seeing it here. Houston always runs contrary to everywhere else. It does make sense to convert your large house to be as energy efficient as possible.

[EasilyAmused]

If it's true, hopefully it will kill that heinous Garage in The Front style.

2/3 of the facade is car storage.

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

If it's true, hopefully it will kill that heinous Garage in The Front style.

2/3 of the facade is car storage.

I don't like it either - but I think it's here to stay in our area - it's cheaper to do it instead if the detached in the rear of the lot. The lots are too narrow now.

[travelguy_73]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

If it's true, hopefully it will kill that heinous Garage in The Front style.

2/3 of the facade is car storage.

x2

I have never been a fan of the standard suburban-style home, but those with rear detached garages are much easier on the eye. IIRC, they were the norm up until the late 90s or so. Not sure why they fell out of style, maybe the suburban lots are too narrow now, or people don't like to walk outside to get to the garage?

In Dallas, many of the new neighborhoods have alley-access to garages...I would love to see more of that here.

[capn_billl]

Maybe a bit premature to say that. It is a recession, of course everyone downsized. The entire housing market was overbuilt because of people borrowing money they couldn't pay to buy homes they couldn't afford. ALL housing is in a slump right now. I live in a McMansion and it isn't going anywhere.

[tstone]

I looked in the magic 8-ball and it said the McMansion and the truck-based SUV will not be dead in Texas within my lifetime. They might lose a little bit of value with a bad economy but they'll bounce back.

Also that photo above is a ''Texas generic'' house, and that style is probably not going anywhere either. I'm not a big fan, but they will look more attractive in 10-15 years once those trees mature. Honestly, I've seen worse around here in newer condos and older homes.

[EasilyAmused]

Strange thing is that house was listed as a custom at almost 500k. Of course it's been reduced.

[300zxtwinturbo]

It depends on which "Houston" you live in, theres the urban sprawl then theres the city, In the city, they are building homes more in a townhome kinda way, with them still being large, as in over 3k sq feet and three stories but with much less yard space. I don't see anything wrong with McMansions really considering that our McMansions still are about half the price of much smaller homes in most other cities, literaly. As in our 300k McMansions at almost 5k sq feet are cheaper than a 600k $ 3000 sq foot home in most cities.