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with lot sizes around .10!! You can hardly find a new subdivison with lot sizes bigger. I can't believe these subdivisions are actually selling homes. Can someone please tell me the advantage of living like this?? Where would your children play, where would your dog run, how could you enjoy your yard? Maybe it's just me. Is having a new home worth the price of no privacy? And, if no one wass buying these homes wouldn't builders be forced to give consumers a decent lot size. What does everyone else think??
Okay, okay, don't start. But many of these new neighborhoods with small lots will also offer community amenities, such as swimming pool, playgrounds, etc. It really depends on your preference, but if you do like the newer homes, you can look in some areas a little farther to get more land.
Personally, I agree with you and Mike, although it bothers me more that they clearcut the land first, so you don't even have mature plantings to help separate the homes. As long as buyers are willing to buy them, they will continue to build them. (And people are buying them in droves! Maybe, like my husband, they don't like to mow.)
I currently live in a house with a yard the size of Yankee Stadium and hate it. Our previous house had a yard the size of a postage stamp and we were just sure that we needed more green space. Now that we have it it is a hurculean struggle to maintain. We have two choices - do it ourselves or pay to have it done. I'm here to tell ya that we have spread our last 8 yards of mulch. When we first moved in eight years ago we spent every weekend either feeding the grass, mowing the grass, digging up weeds in the grass or the massive planting beds, pruning, spraying for bugs and on and on and ON! Enough! We have no children at home, no dogs (only cats inside) and just no d*mn desire to spend every waking moment when we aren't sleeping or at work messing in the yard. I can't wait to move out of here into a house with as little yard as possible. I fantasize over all the free time and free money we will have not having to pay Chemlawn, the lawn mowers, the landscapers (they do the weeding, mulching, planting etc.), the water company (huge sprinkler system set-up) and everyone else who does anything else to the ballpark, I mean our yard. This doesn't take into account the countless dollars spent on trees and plants and sodding this behemouth. So, I hope I have answered your question as to what the advantage is in living like this - from my perspective the idea of a miniscule yard seems like nirvana.
with lot sizes around .10!! You can hardly find a new subdivison with lot sizes bigger. I can't believe these subdivisions are actually selling homes. Can someone please tell me the advantage of living like this?? Where would your children play, where would your dog run, how could you enjoy your yard? Maybe it's just me. Is having a new home worth the price of no privacy? And, if no one wass buying these homes wouldn't builders be forced to give consumers a decent lot size. What does everyone else think??
Like everything in real-estate, it's just a trade off.
You have L amount of dollars to put towards the land and D amount of dollars to put towards the dwelling. So your home's value is V = L + D.
So let's assume V is fixed - you can only afford a set amount (say 250k).
If the land is in a good location (defined by lots of variables: schools, parks, proximately to work [maybe RTP], etc) L will be a larger number and D will have to be smaller.
For example 250k = 50k + 200k (using the V = L + D formula)
But what if you want more money to go towards the dwelling? Well, you'll have to find a way to decrease L so you can increase D. You can either move farther out to decrease L or you can get a smaller amount of land to decrease L. Some will choose to decrease the size of the lot and buy these .1 acre lots.
So 250k = 30k + 220k. With the smaller lot, they now have 20k more to spend on the dwelling.
My wife and I lived in a townhome with less than .1 acres. They actually listed the lot in square feet so they could use a bigger number . Why did we do this? Because the location was great for work and we had no kids. It just fit our situation well. Our friends would ask, "How do you live with such a small lot?" And we'd ask them "How do you deal with a 30 min commute?" It's all in what value you place on the variables that make up your home's value.
My current lot size is .20 and that's really as small as I would go. I have three large dogs, and I don't like feeling claustrophobic. That said, I did live in a townhouse for a number of years and had a postage stamp sized yard (and 3 dogs). My neighbors drove me insane though - the stories I could tell!
I think people like to live closer in, and don't want a lot of yard work. I want space and trees though. I'm hoping to move next year to a house with at least .3 or .4 - which means in my price range I'm probably going to be looking at older homes in Cary. I love the floorplan of my "modern" 8 year old house - but I hate feeling like I live in a field, surrounded on all sides, with no privacy.
Some people also just enjoy yard work. I've met lots of people (my husband included) who like to mow the lawn and like to putter around with landscaping and have a garden.
Many people find it relaxing to come home to their yards in the evening and weekends and take pride in the work at they do out there.
So we'd agree with the original post - we don't know how people live on such tiny lots where you could shake hands with the people next door through the windows.
It's also a matter of privacy. My realtor called it "NIMBY" (naked in my back yard). Lots of people seek bigger lots to have that type of privacy.
I don't disagree with anything you have all said here but truth be told, in the middle of a Houston summer there is very little charm associated with being outside doing back-breaking yard work. Add to that the fact that I imagine many of you folks are considerably younger than my husband and I are. Standing at a mountain of mulch for two days, shoveling into wheelbarrows so my husband can dump the loads all over the yard - not so much fun these days. I still love going to nurseries to choose plants but have no problem handing them over to someone else to plant. (You'd be surprised just how much your priorities change over the years.) I cherish my privacy as much as the next guy but heck, if I need to be private I can just go inside my house.
I currently live in a house with a yard the size of Yankee Stadium and hate it. Our previous house had a yard the size of a postage stamp and we were just sure that we needed more green space. Now that we have it it is a hurculean struggle to maintain.
Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of too. We had a 0.19 acre lot with out last house, which was a 2800 sq ft ranch, so I could practically cut the grass with a Weed Wacker. My wife wants a bigger yard now, and everything that we look at that is less than 1/2 acre she says "It's too close to the neighbors". I told her that if she gets the big yard, I get one of those zero-radius turn riding mowers. Good thing we have a boy. I'll teach him how to mow the lawn by the time he's 10
Okay, okay, don't start. But many of these new neighborhoods with small lots will also offer community amenities, such as swimming pool, playgrounds, etc. It really depends on your preference, but if you do like the newer homes, you can look in some areas a little farther to get more land.
Personally, I agree with you and Mike, although it bothers me more that they clearcut the land first, so you don't even have mature plantings to help separate the homes. As long as buyers are willing to buy them, they will continue to build them. (And people are buying them in droves! Maybe, like my husband, they don't like to mow.)
With the Sheep?
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. Why did we do this? Because the location was great for work and we had no kids. It just fit our situation well. Our friends would ask, "How do you live with such a small lot?" And we'd ask them "How do you deal with a 30 min commute?" It's all in what value you place on the variables that make up your home's value.
