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Here in TX, 10k sqft sounds like a good minimum to be considered a mansion. 6k, 7k, even 8k sq ft homes really aren't that uncommon in the DFW area, and a mansion implies something grandiose enough that you just don't see many of them.
As far as cost goes, I think $2 million is probably the minimum for the suburbs, more for UP/HP.
I agree with the others as far as "custom" builds go... It can't be a replicated home, or, if it is a custom builder plan built elsewhere, then the volume must be low enough that you wouldn't find another home like it in your neighborhood. I do disagree with the $400/sq ft mark though... maybe for homes downtown where the land value makes the cost higher, but for the suburbs, I've seen what I consider to be mansions with $200-250/sqft prices.
Times have changed. Back in the 80's, $1 million would definitely buy you a mansion here in DFW. Now, that's within striking distance of a lot of 4k sq ft custom homes being built all over.
Quality does seem to go hand in hand with custom but not always. Even custom builders have 'stock' homes that they can replicate though not at the rate of tract builders. For me it doesn't have to have multiple stories. Some creative architects have done amazing things with single story homes. Quality also does not mean tasteful as evidenced by many, many examples on magazines, TV and MLS websites
Mansion does imply scale however so it does need to be much larger than average homes in the area and considerably more expensive. So a McMansion in Dallas could be a Mansion in Chicago size wise, and a mansion in Dallas may cost 15mil while in Southern California it may have to cost twice that to qualify.
Separately though, why one would want to live in a house large enough to be considered a mansion in Texas defeats me. What would that be here anyway? 20k square feet? I'd have to entertain crowds every other day just to drown out that silence.
Or maybe take in 10 foster kids...under 8. Each with a nanny....and a pet.
Also agreed about the combination of quality and price.
I know a couple individuals who have some truly massive homes, not quite 20k square feet but over 15k. In both cases they are old enough that their kids are grown and have places of their own (kinda hard to afford such a place before you're 50 anyways) so it's just them and the wife. I actually asked why they wanted a house so big. The first individual's answer was along the lines of "because I can" and the second individual's answer was that they had too much stuff to fit into a smaller house; I was going to ask why they don't just downsize - I mean who needs that much "stuff"? - but I wasn't going to be rude. In both cases, I'm fairly confident neither of these individuals are making enough money for these to be smart purchases. First guy actually went bankrupt about 10 years back. Lots of people living it up and beyond their means in DFW (not so different than other areas though when it comes down to it!)
I think the term is very flexible (it has changed over the years so it is relative to what others have) and its definition is somewhat personal as well (not all people would agree as we can see on what constitutes a 'mansion'). I think of the quality aspect as being quite important - it should be a high quality build with high quality finishings - but it can be any period construction. Size-wise .. well it probably means anything larger than I have or could afford. Price I think doesn't matter as much as 'location' maybe - if that even matters at all either.
What it doesn't mean to me is anything that is McMansion-like in appearance but just larger. I am not sure one can compare a mansion and a McMansion despite the attempt to do so which is apparent in the latter label. I don't think it follows that one must end before the other begins in other words - I think they are quite different but then I am not your average city/suburban dwelling house consumer I guess.
With 3 different (much smaller) houses (in non-high priced areas) I currently 'own' a total of 10 bedrooms and 5
bathrooms of 'personal space' (not rentals) and the total square footage is well over 8k, on a total acreage of well over 2 (acres) .. so do I own the equivalent of a mansion with a probable total worth of less than $400k USD? All are well built structures and while there really are no bells and whistles like indoor pools and saunas, I do have a soapstone counter in one house which will last forever and a day (not to mention I have 3 kitchens!). I suppose all I need to do is call a moving truck and have them all stacked on top of each other and I will finally have a mansion!
We have a larger than average home but my mother-in-law lives with us half the year and we have guests who stay for 1+ weeks quite frequently. I don't get along with my mother-in-law so I'm glad she has some space to exercise and chat with her friends out of eye and ear shot. She cooks two meals a day so I'm glad the kitchen is large enough that we don't always bump into each other when we're in there together. She's a kitchen hog. Have y'all checked out the website McMansion Hell?
Here in TX, 10k sqft sounds like a good minimum to be considered a mansion. 6k, 7k, even 8k sq ft homes really aren't that uncommon in the DFW area, and a mansion implies something grandiose enough that you just don't see many of them.
As far as cost goes, I think $2 million is probably the minimum for the suburbs, more for UP/HP.
I agree with the others as far as "custom" builds go... It can't be a replicated home, or, if it is a custom builder plan built elsewhere, then the volume must be low enough that you wouldn't find another home like it in your neighborhood. I do disagree with the $400/sq ft mark though... maybe for homes downtown where the land value makes the cost higher, but for the suburbs, I've seen what I consider to be mansions with $200-250/sqft prices.
Times have changed. Back in the 80's, $1 million would definitely buy you a mansion here in DFW. Now, that's within striking distance of a lot of 4k sq ft custom homes being built all over.
Nothing that sells for 200-250 a square foot in the current market is a mansion. Sorry. If it can sell for that cheap, it has absolutely nothing remarkable about it in terms of finishes. Materials of high quality and skilled craftsman don't work for prices that make such a transaction feasible. Maybe such a house has a decent kitchen and a nice master bath, and the rest of the house is junky builder grade crap, but then it isn't really a mansion in my opinion.
I agree with the others as far as "custom" builds go... It can't be a replicated home, or, if it is a custom builder plan built elsewhere, then the volume must be low enough that you wouldn't find another home like it in your neighborhood. I do disagree with the $400/sq ft mark though... maybe for homes downtown where the land value makes the cost higher, but for the suburbs, I've seen what I consider to be mansions with $200-250/sqft prices
I didn't mean $400/SF including land. I meant that the actual construction costs for a real mansion will be in the $400/SF range. That kind of budget allows for the craftsmanship, materials, and details that separate McMansions from actual mansions.
Reading through a couple threads talking about McMansions made me curious where people draw the line at what is a McMansion versus an actual mansion. We're used to bigger homes here in TX, so I'm guessing that what we come up with will be quite a bit different vs other parts of the country.
First, does it need to be a standalone home to be called a mansion? In Chicago for example, a 6k sqft brownstone can run $2+million, and due to the condensed housing stock there, a lot of people would consider that a mansion.
Do you determine a mansion based on price, sq footage, acreage, or some combination?
For me, I'd say minimum size for a mansion would need to be 10k sq ft. Lot size is less important to me in my determination, but ideally at least half an acre, preferably 1+ acres. However, there are plenty of homes in University Park and Highland Park worth millions that aren't that big, that I'm sure a lot of people consider mansions.
Thoughts?
This thread is a little ridiculous, as I don't hear the word mansion used very often today. In my opinion, "McMansion" is more of a pejorative to describe a large, yet non-descript, tract home in a suburban locale.
I personally think of cheaper construction, essentially a beige box of sorts where quality is low and the house two doors down has the same floor plan with perhaps a different shade of brick. I associate it more with getting a "big" house sq footage wise, regardless of finish out. Obviously big doesn't mean quality.
When I think McMansion, I think a Grand Homes subdivision in somewhere like Frisco or Little Elm.
I think that it's about POSTURE. It's about a certain formality, and a certain layout of the spaces. A mansion, like a palace (or a true limousine) is configured to the needs and aspirations of a certain kind of person.
Grey Gardens is constantly referred to as a "mansion". http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5...dith-beale.jpg It is NOT, nor was it ever intended to be. Its style is deliberately casual - even humble - despite the fact that it was finely designed and expensively built , for persons of importance. It supports a casual 'at-the-beach' lifestyle.
The James Burgess Book House, in Detroit, IS a true mansion. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...592fc52d32.jpg It's about the same size as Grey Gardens, but the intent of those shaping it was entirely different. Notice the formality of the design, and the choice of surfaces. While Grey gardens is covered in shingles, this one is stuccoed to look like fine cut stone. It exerts a posture of importance. And it supports a certain way of living. A true mansion is a residence, in a formal style, designed to support a conventionally proper lifestyle, for Upper Class or Upper Middle Class persons.
A McMansion is an oversized house of pretentious bearing, built for classless persons. It will have a huge kitchen, which flows into a huge flop-out area, for "being casual". The dining room will be undersized, because it's really just a fantasy space. The kitchen will be "eat-in", with a counter for undignified eating while seated on stools.
A true mansion will have a kitchen designed for use by servants and/or caterers (even if used exclusively by family members). The kitchen/laundry/sewing room/wine room/utility rooms/pantries will be segregated from rooms used for entertaining and for family dining. The dining room will be relatively large, and intended for actual use.
And then, there are issues of QUALITY. Mansions, today, are designed by architects (in the past, they were sometimes copied from pattern books, by expert carpenters). Their foundations are major productions, in contrast to the rudimentary foundations of McMansions. Mansions have thick walls, where McMansions' walls are built to the minimums set by building codes.
While the plans for a true mansion tend to be so heavy, many ladies cannot carry them, the plans for a McMansion, are not nearly so comprehensive. For a true mansion, the designers leave nothing to chance. Elevations for every wall, in every room of any importance, will have been drawn. Large-scale detail drawings will have been done, for every drawer, every cabinet, every moulding assembly, and every door frame. There will be a landscape architect (and possibly a garden designer, too, or various garden specialists). There will be an interior designer. Engineers will have been employed by the Architects.
McMansions tend to have a great many cheaply-made elements, interspersed with "feature" elements, which can cost a great deal. So, you may have fabulous countertops, and fabulous bathrooms, but cheap, flimsy garage doors just like what you'd see on the cheapest tract house. You'll find cheap, gimmicky windows and doors, but foyer floors with inlaid fancywork.
While true mansions are designed by persons of taste and erudition - persons who have studied long and hard, to be able to produce coherent, convincing, cohesive homes, McMansions are produced by people who know how to draft on a computer, and not much else. McMansions are awkward, faddish, and frequently just-plain POINTLESS. There are so many silly things about McMansions - things which good architects, and good interior designers, simply will not allow. If a true mansion is a brilliant designer's rational and substantial response to a set of needs and desires, then a McMansion amounts to a schizophrenic's erratic and ineffective efforts at solving a set of nonexistent problems.
As for size, I've seen true mansions not much larger than three thousand square feet. And I've seen McMansions exceeding thirty thousand square feet. So size, really, is the least relevant factor.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 03-08-2017 at 12:05 AM..
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