Why Homes in the Exurbs Aren't Built to Last (Dallas: sale, custom home)

[DaveG99]

If you buy an old home your more than likely going to have to spend lots of money to repair/update plumbing, electrical, AC, etc. In a new home everything is new. And not all new homes are built bad. I think some people get bad ones but most are pretty good. And the new homes are built to be efficient and normally are better insulated than old homes.

Why do you think all these people in uptown knock down the old homes and build new? Its happening everywhere and its happening for a reason. New homes built the way you want are more desirable in general.

[flyfishingjones]

Originally Posted by Ramona72

I question the values that make people want a 4,000sqft house, in a neighborhood without sidewalks, without front porches, where you have to drive 15 minutes to get a gallon of milk and where you can enter your home without seeing your neighbors (I'm speaking generally, not about that development specifically).

I've heard those huge houses called "debtor's prisons" -- people do nothing but work to fill them and furnish them and heat them. And it's probably made even worse when they end up LOSING money on them.

Seriously, where do you go when you come out to the 'burbs? While there may be neighborhoods like you describe, I'm not sure I've ever been in one. And why do you feel the need to question the "values" of anyone based on where they choose to live?

And I'm absolutely sure that people make dumb financial decisions regardless of where they live - I'm confident there are "house - poor" people in your neighborhood, just like there are probably some in mine. Your broad generalizations are no better than the people who say DISD is full of crummy schools.

Listen, I respect your affinity for urban neighborhoods - there is an appeal there that is undeniable, even for a suburban dweller like myself - but I'm puzzled as to why my choice (and my neighborhood, and my house construction, and my 'values') has to be "bad" and yours is "good". Why can't they just be "different".

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by DaveG99

If you buy an old home your more than likely going to have to spend lots of money to repair/update plumbing, electrical, AC, etc. In a new home everything is new. And not all new homes are built bad. I think some people get bad ones but most are pretty good. And the new homes are built to be efficient and normally are better insulated than old homes.

Why do you think all these people in uptown knock down the old homes and build new? Its happening everywhere and its happening for a reason. New homes built the way you want are more desirable in general.

We could have a whole thread about how inaccurate that generalization is.

Old houses, if properly maintained, do not always require such extensive updates to plumbing/electricals. Really the only time you need to pull out the wiring is if you have knob & tube (some insurers won't touch it) or aluminum (potential fire hazard) wiring.

And if you think you won't have upkeep/maintenance costs on a newer home, you're sorely mistaken. Systems wear out in newer homes just as they do in older ones.

[PlanoGirl]

Originally Posted by flyfishingjones

Seriously, where do you go when you come out to the 'burbs? While there may be neighborhoods like you describe, I'm not sure I've ever been in one. And why do you feel the need to question the "values" of anyone based on where they choose to live?

And I'm absolutely sure that people make dumb financial decisions regardless of where they live - I'm confident there are "house - poor" people in your neighborhood, just like there are probably some in mine. Your broad generalizations are no better than the people who say DISD is full of crummy schools.

Listen, I respect your affinity for urban neighborhoods - there is an appeal there that is undeniable, even for a suburban dweller like myself - but I'm puzzled as to why my choice (and my neighborhood, and my house construction, and my 'values') has to be "bad" and yours is "good". Why can't they just be "different".

I'd rep you again..but CD won't let me

[mikeh19468]

Originally Posted by Ramona72

Perhaps. But there IS a legitimate conversation to be had about the planning and economies that go into those developments ... and the cities that result from them. I have no problem with people living in the suburbs near their jobs, but I question the values that make people want a 4,000sqft house, in a neighborhood without sidewalks, without front porches, where you have to drive 15 minutes to get a gallon of milk and where you can enter your home without seeing your neighbors (I'm speaking generally, not about that development specifically).

I've heard those huge houses called "debtor's prisons" -- people do nothing but work to fill them and furnish them and heat them. And it's probably made even worse when they end up LOSING money on them.

ffj made excellent points, but I'll also point out that anyone that is buying houses at this point for investment purposes either has a lot of available funds (and is buying up real estate in bulk), or is an idiot. The days of houses being a safe way to watch your capital grow have long since passed.

And so far, the gas, light, and water bills this summer for my 4000 sq ft house (in a neighborhood with plenty of sidewalks, porches, and 4 minutes from buying milk) has been less than it was for my 2003 built 2500 sq ft home in the Philadelphia suburbs during any of the previous two summers...

[racehorse]

Our last bill was high (3,800 square feet in our main house) but it's been hella hot these days. I didn't always remember to turn up the thermostat every day either.

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by dallas90210

I am ALL over Dallas on a regular basis...far more than most people who sit on their little islands and pretend how great the city of a whole really is, when it is not.

Objectively - it is 80-90% very poor. Poverty breeds crime and bad schools unfortunately. It's not about race anymore...that ended with the prior generation...now the flight to the newer & nicer suburbs is about avoiding the extreme poverty, crime and bad schools.


the schools rank bad, .

Perhaps you need to take a class in a DISD school! "rank bad" ???

Seriously though you contend that 80-90% of Dallas is very poor?

[DaveG99]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

We could have a whole thread about how inaccurate that generalization is.

Old houses, if properly maintained, do not always require such extensive updates to plumbing/electricals. Really the only time you need to pull out the wiring is if you have knob & tube (some insurers won't touch it) or aluminum (potential fire hazard) wiring.

And if you think you won't have upkeep/maintenance costs on a newer home, you're sorely mistaken. Systems wear out in newer homes just as they do in older ones.

Things aren't made to last forever. Its common sense that older things are going to fail more than newer things. And the codes nowadays are far more strict. You use to be able to get away with a lot more short cuts back in the old days during construction. Newer homes are built to a higher standard than the old ones.

The loft I lived in in Deep Ellum had 100 year old windows on it and they were terrible at keeping my AC inside the building. I guarantee that if it had new windows it would be much more efficient.

[Macbeth2003]

Originally Posted by DaveG99

If you buy an old home your more than likely going to have to spend lots of money to repair/update plumbing, electrical, AC, etc. In a new home everything is new. And not all new homes are built bad. I think some people get bad ones but most are pretty good. And the new homes are built to be efficient and normally are better insulated than old homes.

Why do you think all these people in uptown knock down the old homes and build new? Its happening everywhere and its happening for a reason. New homes built the way you want are more desirable in general.

This can be true, but only if the previous owners have all let the house slide. We just acquired our home in Junius Heights in April. We had lived in the neighborhood for several years, and knew no other neighborhood would do for us
We had to update the electrical. There was some knob and tube still live. NO ONE would insure it, and that was for the best, as once we got into it we found it had been spliced into badly, and the breaker box was just jumpered to from an old fuse box hidden in the wall. The meter was also outside the house in the front, and the breaker inside the house at the rear. We had a box put below the meter, and rewired about half the house. Thankfully it is pier and beam, which means they can both come up from beneath, and down from above making the labor much cheaper. Total cost about $3k.

The foundation required a tiny bit of work, again pier and beam, so 1 day $500. Thank the lord for pier and beam instead of slab. Seeing the huge foundation bills my parents had had over the years though I would NEVER have a slab foundation home down here.

The previous owners had updated pluming, new heater 4 years ago, new ac 3 years ago, new roof 5 years ago, etc etc.

Most people who have lived in these homes for the past 90 years have not just let them rot.

There are horribly built new homes, and old homes in bad condition. There are also good examples of both.
One thing that doesn't exist really is the poorly built old home. If it was poorly built 90 years ago, it isn't around anymore.

[DtX4415]

Originally Posted by dallas90210

Poverty breeds crime

This s is one of the biggest myths that politicians try to push, if anything it's the other way around.