Single family home versus higher density housing (Austin, Navasota: cul-de-sac, 2014)

[sojourner77]

Originally Posted by orngkat

I think this is probably very true. Developers are behind the curve on offering different options to them - something other than retirement facilities. I know a lot of boomers who are sick of yard work and house maintenance that their current sf homes require. Ideally, I would like to find a small, well-designed, cottage type house (no more than 1200-1500 sf) with perhaps a tiny yard or zero lot since I do like to garden. If there are any left, they get knocked down these days. Ironically, many of my friends in that age group are looking for the same thing and it's just not out there. I would also consider living in an attached townhome type of residence.

They are out there - garden homes specifically. There is one development near me that looks really nice, gateway to the hill country (1626) in a secluded spot.

New South Austin Homes For Sale - Gabardine at Shady Hollow

[TexasHorseLady]

There are also detached condos that are single family homes in everything but the yard work. Some of them irritate me because they pretend on the outside to be Hyde Park type homes but you walk in the door and you're in a anywhere USA suburb type home, but some people love them and they are a nice middle solution for those who want to live in a single family home and don't want to do the yard work or pay a neighbor kid to do it (and, yes, there really are still neighbor kids who will do that, I know a young girl who just started her own lawn mowing business).

[TexasHorseLady]

There used to be, scattered around Austin, not only garage apartments (some of them two bedroom!), but also little communities of houses on not exactly culdesacs but one block dead end streets, down near the Capitol (some lovely ones that were torn down to build office buildings), and near UT, and in some other areas. Not right smack dab in the middle of single family homes but on the edges of neighborhoods and, really, little neighborhoods unto themselves where the neighbors all had street parties and looked out for each other. Nothing that changed the overall neighborhood at all.

[gpurcell]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

FWIW, the aging babyboomers are going to cause a shift toward a different type of housing, away from detached 1-family. That will happen over the next 30 years though.

I wonder about this. All the old Boomer parents I know are just shifting to smaller SFH.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

I wonder about this. All the old Boomer parents I know are just shifting to smaller SFH.

We are torn. The attraction of MF is you can stick a key in it and walk away for months of travel at a time. We love our house, but hate the amount of maintenance it takes. Not sure that would be better even in a smaller SFR.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

I wonder about this. All the old Boomer parents I know are just shifting to smaller SFH.

There's been a discussion thread on that in the retirement forum.

People still want their SFH but pared down, single story, smaller lot that easier to take care of and full of accessibility features.
Quite a number of folks plan to age in place in a SFH.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by scm53

We are torn. The attraction of MF is you can stick a key in it and walk away for months of travel at a time. We love our house, but hate the amount of maintenance it takes. Not sure that would be better even in a smaller SFR.

If you are going to be traveling most of the time there's no sense in buying a house.
A condo would be a better bet.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

If you are going to be traveling most of the time there's no sense in buying a house.
A condo would be a better bet.

Eventually, the traveling will end. The question is where you want to be at that point.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by HeadedWest

Eventually, the traveling will end. The question is where you want to be at that point.

Yeah..that always seems to come up as well.
And the funny thing is that most tire from all that traveling rather soon into retirement.
But that was their dream to spend their days traveling.

[IC_deLight]

Originally Posted by Rynldsbr

IC - I am just a guy moving to Austin and tired of hearing about how locals hate the sprawl, bass turd people moving in and ruining the city and so on. I'm hoping some of the complainers might man up and admit they would never live in anything other than single family housing either.

A large percentage of the "locals" aren't all they local. They just have an "I was here first" attitude.

Originally Posted by Rynldsbr

I give a crap about urban sprawl in Austin since I am cutting my current commute in half to make more money and live in a bigger house by moving there. Just wanted to start a thread that gets people to admit they won't live in "densified" housing anyway.

There you go - although it's still not clear what you define to be "urban sprawl".
If you want to promote housing choices, then add non-HOA housing to the list.
As far as "densified" is concerned, the average lot size has been dropping significantly. Anything new is already being densified compared to traditional subdivision lot sizes. Of course there is always some "greenspace", etc. thrown in to increase the average "effective" lot size for various political reasons. It also ensures the homeowners are forever burdened with an HOA and all the negatives that go with it. If you want a condo there are plenty of choices. They are being put up everywhere. Good luck selling one when the market flips again as it certainly will. Can't imagine anyone wanting the legal entanglement and all the negatives if they knew what they were buying.

Originally Posted by Rynldsbr

And, Captain Obvious, I didn't imply urban sprawl was negative. I said many posts on CD deal with it as such. I also didn't offer a solution, I posed a question.

Of course, you were propping densification up as a "solution" - there wasn't any other reason to make reference to "urban sprawl" in your post on densification. The tone of the question certainly suggested a negative implication of "urban sprawl" - whatever you are defining that to be. Ahoy.