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As my husband and I near retirement and are looking in different areas (east coast from NC and south) I am noticing almost all new construction does not have homes built on a foundation. They all look the same and they have a little slab of a patio in the backyard. All the trees are cut down and there is no landscaping. From behind the house you would not be able to tell one from the other because they look identical. I am sure it is cheaper to build like this, but to me it just looks inexpensive. Looking for a house in a price range of up to $275,000 sure has not been easy. Older neighborhoods tend to have old brick ranchers that need a ton of updating with small room sizes, although they usually have great yards which is a plus. Anyone else notice the trend? I have always been cautious about homes not on a foundation with concerns about pipes bursting, etc. To me there is just something nice about a traditional home built up off the ground with a welcoming porch and beautiful landscaping and a deck in the back yard.
The house is just sitting on the dirt? Or do you mean that the foundation is a concrete slab? Or do you mean the houses have no crawl space? Nobody is building a new house with no foundation.
I am noticing almost all new construction does not have homes built on a foundation.
Does "foundation" mean having a basement?
In the south most new construction is a slab of some sort ... on grade or raised
Crawl spaces used to be more popular (cheap to build) but less so now.
Full basements are rare because there is no frost line issue to make digging that deep worth the cost.
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To me there is just something nice about a traditional home built up off the ground
with a welcoming porch and beautiful landscaping and a deck in the back yard.
No argument here. The term to look for is bungalow or craftsman. LINK
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Looking for a house in a price range of up to $275,000 sure has not been easy.
Older neighborhoods ...
Buy the neighborhood you want to be in... not the house.
Find the worst house there and then rebuild the innards & add on to suit your taste.
To clarify I meant on a concrete slab, no crawl space.
I think that some of it has to do with the ground its built on, and some of that varies regionally, even within a county or city. Oftentimes, the most desirable land was built first, newer available land has different requirements.
And, crawl spaces come with plenty of their own headaches. As do basements, and I'm sure slabs.
According to my (structural engineer) husband, slab on grade is more expensive than a crawl space with CMU or concrete stem walls. Less rebar than a slab, generally speaking.
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and susceptibility to earthquakes
