McMansions making a comeback? (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: credit card, big house, transfer)

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by gt6974a

Okay, here's an example of a McMansion. I know both of the owners of these two homes as one is my buddy's house and the other one is his bosses. This houses sit directly next to each other. His boss lived in smaller home while he tore down the older house next door and built his new house.

His house is very, very nice, and big, but by no means, a mansion.

This is off Pebblebrook road in the Smyrna/Mableton (wannabe Vinings) area.

McMansion? LOL. No, my friend. That is just a new home. Not all new homes are McMansions.

[gt6974a]

Originally Posted by neil0311

You're being sarcastic, right?

No, maybe not quite a McMansion to some people, but it shows what people are talking about via the definition in wiki.

"In American suburban communities, McMansion is a pejorative for a type of large, new luxury house which is judged to be incongruous for its neighborhood."

This is a 2004, 3900 square foot home sitting in a n-hood with 1500 square foot homes, built in 1961.

The tax assessor's values are at $406K vs $117K. Smaller home went for $220K in the good market, so what do you think the big one would have gone for during that time, knowing that it's finished out to a 'T'?

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by livinginbuffalo

For what it's worth, I grew up in a 3/1.5 bath home and my father was a teacher (shudder)! I shared a room with my little sister my entire life. Who cares about that? My parents were conservative and didn't overspend and so their three children took on their views about money and none of us have huge mortgages or any credit card debt. You learn what you learn. They now have a lovely large home in my father's retirement and they got that from saving wisely and that's their choice!!

Also, I know many people overbought (obviously) but it was not so prevalent where I came from in Buffalo. It has been flushed out for the most part where I live now and it was never a huge number here. There have been an average of about 14 homes on the market in my subdivision the entire year. I am sick and tired of reading the blatant judgments coming from certain people. Again, we all live where we WANT to live in the type of house we WANT to live in. There are people that come to read these boards and try to gleen some things about the area. This is not good reading.

My post was not a direct attack against you BTW just sharing my opinion on the subject at hand. Another poster mentioned they needed a 5/3 home due to having a certain amount of kids. I used my personal experience to counter the reasoning behind getting a larger home one can't afford just so kids don't have to share rooms. I see you can agree.

It's great that you and your family had good financial values. I wish more people were as responsible as your family.

Being house poor is also not something that was a large phenomenon when I was growing up either in my hometown, but I do think that during the 90s this concept of "keeping up with the Joneses" became a large fixture in the mindsets of many who wanted to impress people with their material possessions, especially houses. I also see it a lot more in metro Atlanta than in my hometown where people are not all that well off and you rarely (if ever as I have never seen) people tearing down old homes and building new homes 3 times as big as the tear down. I'm sure it may have happened but if it did it would be very rare.

My grandparents owned a beautiful home in an historic neighborhood in my hometown that is on the national register of historic places. Very beautiful late Victorian homes line the streets and my family was lucky enough to own outright and to live in one, which when my family bought it, in the late 1960s was unheard of for a black family. I was devastated when my grandma (her parents owned it before her) sold it outside of the family as I wanted to live there one day. I have an appreciation for older, historic architecture due to our involvement in the preservation of that neighborhood and the festivals and tour of homes we did every year. But I agree people can live where they want. I just wish more people will consider their personal finances and chose to live in areas they can afford instead of moving someplace where they have to pay 50% of their income just to pay the rent or mortgage when most IMO just do this to impress other people.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by 10 feet tall

BTW, most of the early century bungalows in town (here in ATL and elsewhere) were purchased right out of the Sears Catalog (literally) and are the definition of cookie cutter, only older. But being cookie cutter isn't what makes something a McMansion. And I would argue that the vast majority of the ATL burbs are not at all chock full of McMansions as is often the perception.

This. Well said.

[ATLTJL]

We get it, Georgialakesearch....you think you're old money.

Maybe you are. Maybe you're not. I don't really know.

What I do know is regardless of whether you are old money or not, you truly lack the one thing that makes old money desirable: class.

You have no class.

People with class do not have to come on internet boards and deride what they define as "new money."

Therefore, it's really irrelevant whether you truly are the "old money" that you profess to be.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaLakeSearch

Pretentious! Ha

Spending 2 million on a house in Duluth so you can appear to have an 8 million Buckhead mansion is what a pretentious person would do!

You're right. They -must be- pretentious for not being able to afford something more $2 million, but being able to afford something more than a typical new $400,000 suburban house. silly me

But hey... lets look at a good side for them, at least they aren't near as pretentious as someone who can live in an area with much more expensive homes and put down people at the $2 million price point or afford to live in one of the most premiere zip codes. Then they would be just about the worst pretentious people around, so I guess there is still some hope for them.

[SLIMMACKEY]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

We get it, Georgialakesearch....you think you're old money.

Maybe you are. Maybe you're not. I don't really know.

What I do know is regardless of whether you are old money or not, you truly lack the one thing that makes old money desirable: class.

You have no class.

People with class do not have to come on internet boards and show their deride what they define as "new money."

Therefore, it's really irrelevant whether you truly are the "old money" that you profess to be.

Kudos

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

We get it, Georgialakesearch....you think you're old money.

Maybe you are. Maybe you're not. I don't really know.

What I do know is regardless of whether you are old money or not, you truly lack the one thing that makes old money desirable: class.

You have no class.

People with class do not have to come on internet boards and deride what they define as "new money."

Therefore, it's really irrelevant whether you truly are the "old money" that you profess to be.

Amen.

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

People act like I am writing breaking news. You can say what you want about my opinion but oh well I have no desire to get a three times the size house in Johns Creek so I can be apart of the keeping up with the Joneses crowd. I remember driving up to CCOS and St. Marlo in the early 1990s saying these houses will never sell for what the owners paid. Look at the transfer records in CCOS and you will see houses that sold for less in 2004 then 1997, and selling for even less now. A lot of the financial problems America is facing is because of people trying to keep up with the Joneses. And most of it happened in the supposedly "elite" new suburbs. Sorry Duluth is no New Canaan or Greenwich, CT, or Chappaqua or Bedford, NY.

Would Mitt Romney live in Buckhead or Duluth? What about President Obama?(I think President Obama would probably go with Ansley Park or Druid Hills.)

People act like I said everybody in the exurbs is finanancially irresponsible. There is a huge house in Tuxedo Park that is bank owned. It just happens more in the exurbs.

My point is the people who generally come here and move to the exurbs are not from here and want a big house cheap(or cheap for what you get) but they cannot really afford that house. I am not saying everybody. I have seen a few foreclosure from houses is Sugarloaf and Ccos that were built around 1996-2000 and the owners let them go into foreclosure now because even though they could afford the payment they could not afford the upkeep. Like somebody pointed out a lot of those houses have 4 hvac systems when they all need replacing you are looking at an easy 25k. The pool systems in a ten year old house would be gone or on the way out. You know how much it would cost to paint the outside and interior a 10-15k house? In fourteen years a kitchen is considered outdated. You will see houses listed in CCOS with the faux chatau veneer, green granite, cherry or white cabinets, black double wall ovens, brass hardware, and of course a forest green painted room. They just sit on the market.

Like I said before to furnish a high end home you should expect to spend at least $100psf. That means for the 1.7 million house in Sugarloaf with 15k sq. ft. You would be looking at 1.5 million on interior design. That is why so many of those houses are not well decorated. So if you were buying that house with little or no furniture you could easily spend 3.2 million.

Example:
If you had a million to spend in Westchester County NY you would get a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath; in Duluth you would get at least five bedrooms, 4.5 baths, and finished basement.

http://www.ajc.com/business/housing-...to-603791.html

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

There is a house in CCOS that sold for 3.3 in 1999(was built in 1996), the owner foreclosed in 2008, and the bank sold it for 1.575 in 2011. If you want the house address PM me.(I did not want to post the address for the the news owners privacy.)

I viewed the house when it was on the market and it was not a bad house but, I could see why the owner would end up in foreclosure. It was heavily financed and the house needed updates. You were talking easy 500k in updates. All new systems, bathrooms, kitchen, updating pool, painting, carpets, etc. The house was about 14k sq. ft.