A Few Questions About The Homes

[pepe1]

Originally Posted by blakeb99

I noticed a few things related to the houses there while I was in Minnesota. The main thing that caught my eye was how almost no homes at all were made of brick. Here in the south, almost every home is brick. Anyone know why there are so few brick homes up there? Also, when driving through the twin cities I kept noticing these places that I weren't quite sure what they were. They looked almost liked houses, but at the same time like apartments cause they were connected together. But, they also had garages. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Also, I noticed all the older homes were very different from here in the south. They were almost all square and tall. Our architecture is quite different here.

The reason you see fewer brick homes in the Twin Cities is 100% related to cost (it is not a function of insulation values as both brick and wood are poor insulators). Not only is the material more expensive here, the masonry trades have traditionally been strongly unionized in the Twin Cites, leading to much higher installation costs.

[Snallygaster]

Any victorian homes?

[tvdxer]

Originally Posted by Snallygaster

Any victorian homes?

Up here in Duluth there are quite a few Victorian homes. They're nice to look at.

[Minnehahapolitan]

There are also alot of Victorians in Mpls., Saint Paul, Winona, Red Wing and Stillwater.

[northbound74]

He was talking about the North Shore of Minnesota, which has notably different weather from, say, Hibbing. If you actually live on the shore, you'll rarely see higher than 85. Winters there are also warmer than inland (but still not warm by any means!)

Yes, I was talking about the areas right along the shore, even though I probably couldn't afford the real estate there...

FWIW, many of the houses in the NW Atlanta metro have basements (most of the newer developments, I would guess). Ours only has a half-basement (the other half is the garage, which is located under the house), but that's fine.

That's pretty cool. Strangely enough, in many other parts of the South, like Arkansas or western Tennessee, you can spend 500k-1m on a house and still not get a basement... despite the onslaught of tornadoes. 500k buys a very large house down there, otherwise.

[sugarbeet]

I don't believe use or non-use of brick has anything to do with weather. Anyone who's spent much time in the Northeast (as well as a number of other cold climates) has seen that brick is prevalent among the housing stock.

I believe it is a cost issue. In Minnesota, Brick (materials + labor) costs about $8/sf, while vinyl siding costs less than $2/sf.

I don't know the costs of brick in other places, but I do know for a fact that labor is much less expensive in many southern markets (Texas, in particular).

And use of a material like brick has a snowball effect - the more it's used the lower prices get.

That doesn't mean you won't see brick here - there are some beautiful older brick homes around Minneapolis and St. Paul.