New Houses Are Ugly (square footage, appraiser, price, construction)
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It's become a trend in my neighborhood, where just about all of the houses were built in the 1940's/1950's and are small ranches around 800-1200 sq feet in size for old houses to be torn down and are replaced with these hideous, generic, over-sized two-floor new houses that are completely out of proportion for the streets they are on. Not only are they ugly, they tower over the old houses and block all the sunlight and view.
In my opinion these new giant houses just seem cheap and tasteless. Just about every single new house I've seen built are one of these as well. Does no one want a modest, reasonably sized house anymore? Maybe it's because I've lived in a 800 sq foot house all my life but I simply don't understand what one is doing with all of that space. It seems ridiculous to me to be living in a 2500-3000 sq ft house if you're just a four-member family or less like the majority are around here.
This is obviously subjective, state your opinions about the new houses that have appeared in your neighborhoods and what you think about them.
There is a real estate concept called highest and best use meaning whatever is built on a property (whether it is residential or commercial) should be the use that maximizes the value of that land. There just aren't many people interested in building small houses anymore.
My big beef is the style of the houses. They almost 100% those farmhouse things with the siding and black windows. Think Joanne Gaines style. I just can't figure out why people want to build all the same thing that will look terribly dated in 10 years.
Another real estate value concept that I found kind of interesting in appraiser training was that the taller the buildings being built, the higher the value per sf the land is. I was trained in Los Angeles by the County Assessor's office and we took a tour of downtown LA real estate as part of our training.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Its is funny that the new developments are 4,000 sf but still being built as traditional styles, such as this one near us.
But, when they demolish a Seattle Victorian, they replace it with a big ugly box that just doesn't go at all with the neighborhood, and in many cases the developer buys and demolishes two or 3 homes and replaces them like this:
I really love the Milwaukee bungalows built around the turn of the century. Although most only have one bathroom which doesn’t cut it for a large family like ours.
We have always been fine in 1100-1400ish sf. We have four kids with another on the way. More square footage means more messes and more to clean. Lol No thanks! Most large families I know also have modest homes, and many of us homeschool so we are in that house more than the average family.
I guess everything is relative. My parents downsized (still a 3/2/2, though) but it was really an upgrade and they call it “the tiny house.” Makes me just roll my eyes bc it’s much nicer than most people will ever have and it comes off as pretentious.
I live near Raleigh. Flip through an area new construction magazine and every builder is building the same basic style. There may be a little brick here a little stone there but the shapes are all the same. Something between board and batten farmhouse and pseudo craftsman. It’s visually depressing.
In Spokane the trend, at least in the urban neighborhoods is to demo and split the lot smaller and build smaller more trendy homes OR gut and restore the Craftsman homes. Only when you out into the suburbs do you see the larger homes mentioned here. BUT the urban neighborhoods are very very expensive so most starter homes are larger and newer but much cheaper and only found out in the burbs. The starter home priced urban homes are complete gut and renovate candidates.
Last edited by Spokaneinvestor; 08-30-2019 at 10:29 AM..
We just bought a 2012 house that is larger square feet overall than one we are selling. We bought 3 bedrooms/2 baths same as we have now, new home rooms are larger because current home built 1992. If I could have moved/bought our current home floor plan in new state we would have, we don't need more living space, but a buyer has to buy what is available. Those vintage renovated homes the OP mentions sell for about 50% more per square foot than newer homes.
We looked at older homes that were renovated in our search but having been through a sewer pipe scare with a rental property we will never buy a home with non-PVC pipes. Then there was the Chinese drywall fiasco in the 90's and the copper pipes and some plastic pipes breaking in walls around that time too. There always seems to be something to worry about in older homes.
One relative thought the perfect home was 5 years old, that way the owner had time to fix everything the builder did wrong. But he ended up building an expensive home anyway and had to fix things.
We just bought a 2012 house that is larger square feet overall than one we are selling. We bought 3 bedrooms/2 baths same as we have now, new home rooms are larger because current home built 1992. If I could have moved/bought our current home floor plan in new state we would have, we don't need more living space, but a buyer has to buy what is available. Those vintage renovated homes the OP mentions sell for about 50% more per square foot than newer homes.
We looked at older homes that were renovated in our search but having been through a sewer pipe scare with a rental property we will never buy a home with non-PVC pipes. Then there was the Chinese drywall fiasco in the 90's and the copper pipes and some plastic pipes breaking in walls around that time too. There always seems to be something to worry about in older homes.
One relative thought the perfect home was 5 years old, that way the owner had time to fix everything the builder did wrong. But he ended up building an expensive home anyway and had to fix things.
Totally off-topic comment, but YES, always do a video inspection of the sewer line on a older home prior to purchase. In some locals where I have income properties, the City requires a every 5 year (or when sold) video inspection of sewer laterals to keep sewer discharge from being allowed to leak into the ground water. Folks that have a broken sewer connection have to fix within a certain time period or their water is shut off.
I believe most people would think 800 square feet for a family of 4 is too small. That is considered a tiny house. Most want 3 bedrooms for different gender children. So the 3 bedrooms alone take up half the sq footage. Add a bathroom, some closets and you barely have room for a small combo kitchen/dining/living room. i google house plans and couldn’t find many with the 3rd bedroom. Surprised many on this thread think families want this, especially families who home school and need classroom space.
Its is funny that the new developments are 4,000 sf but still being built as traditional styles, such as this one near us.
But, when they demolish a Seattle Victorian, they replace it with a big ugly box that just doesn't go at all with the neighborhood, and in many cases the developer buys and demolishes two or 3 homes and replaces them like this:
...and when did it become "fashionable" to face the garage toward the street?
Or is it just less costly to build in that manner?
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