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Solid wood is perfect for strong shelves. Particle board is cheap and ugly.
People don't need more light in the areas of the country I live in - they need less heat and light coming in; yet McMansions here are made with lots of windows.
Also, when you have lots of windows, you have less privacy. I can drive by some of these big homes and see everything people are doing inside them.
Not only ugly, particle board falls apart in our high humidity. I have wire shelves in all my closets--that promotes air flow and reduces mildew and "stank" on stored items.
windows and privacy--we drove around xmas eve, looking at lights. The ritzy neighborhood featured a lot of homes with HUGE front windows--20' tall arches. Those are great for showing off the ginormous crystal chandeliers, but also revealed the lonely couple dining at an oddly small table.
(I'm sure they were fine; I'm one to talk, hubby and I were driving around looking for kicks after eating Chinese food on xmas eve.)
Major reason that in some parts of the country where most homes being built are 3,000 sq. ft. or larger, is home prices have gotten so high that new home buyers that want and can afford the 3,000 sq. ft. home are the only ones that can afford to buy a new home. And then they have to be built to mass production standards, to keep the price down to where buyers can afford them. Areas where homes sold in the 50s, and 60s, for $25,000 are reselling today 50 and 60 year old homes selling for $1,250,000. Where people will pay $1,000,000 or more for a dilapidated home, and tear it down to be able to find a building lot.
Builders are not trying to tell people to buy bigger homes, or to want this or that. What builders do, is find what they can sell at a reasonable profit, and build homes that that the public is buying. When the people that want smaller homes cannot afford to buy homes, they don't build smaller homes. They build what they can sell, and earn a living. If buyers are only buying open plan homes, that is what they build. If buyers are only buying new homes with granite counter tops, that is what they build.
A big reason to build a home that is brick in front, and the rest is vinyl siding, is it keeps the price of the home down, and will sell more homes a year, than selling all brick homes. In much of the country, they don't even use brick when building homes. Builders are not out there telling people what to buy, They are finding out what the people with sufficient earning power want to buy, and build homes that these people will buy.
Don't blame the builders if they only build 3,000 sq. ft. tract homes, blame it on the fact that that is the homes that the current buyers are buying, as the small home buyers have been priced out of the market, and are not selling at a rate high enough to attract builders, ready, and willing to buy those homes.
Don't blame the builders if they only build 3,000 sq. ft. tract homes, blame it on the fact that that is the homes that the current buyers are buying, as the small home buyers have been priced out of the market, and are not selling at a rate high enough to attract builders, ready, and willing to buy those homes.
+1 That is why I think the blogger, though poking fun at McMansions (which is quite juvenile if you ask me), in her subconscious state, is informing buyers to be more perceptive on what they are buying. In a way she is trying to save people because a house is the single largest investment of a household.
Here is another thing I heard on the radio one day --- millenials do not want current home designs. They prefer a more modern architecture. The impact of this is substantial. Can you imagine when they are the buying market and they would not buy McMansions because they are waiting out on new designs that were being built? The owner's equity on McMansions drops as they drop in marketability.
+1 That is why I think the blogger, though poking fun at McMansions (which is quite juvenile if you ask me), in her subconscious state, is informing buyers to be more perceptive on what they are buying. In a way she is trying to save people because a house is the single largest investment of a household.
Here is another thing I heard on the radio one day --- millenials do not want current home designs. They prefer a more modern architecture. The impact of this is substantial. Can you imagine when they are the buying market and they would not buy McMansions because they are waiting out on new designs that were being built? The owner's equity on McMansions drops as they drop in marketability.
You have to realize, the McMansions are the modern architecture with things like open floor plans, etc. They are being built, to satisfy the millennials. It is the older generations that are complaining about them, not the millennials.
One thing I noticed today looking at houses currently under construction, is that builders are going away from red brick, white trim, and white windows... most of the new houses are earth tones with tan/taupe windows and brown shingles. That's a good thing IMO, the gaudy red brick was getting really overdone.
You have to realize, the McMansions are the modern architecture with things like open floor plans, etc. They are being built, to satisfy the millennials. It is the older generations that are complaining about them, not the millennials.
The younger millennials -- those that are teens to just starting out on jobs - is what the radio program was referencing. I do understand you were referring more on the millennials preceding this and even some of the latter Gen Xers since these 2 segments combine for bulk of those with capacity to buy houses the past 15 years.
I think there is some truth to that, but some things people really do prefer. I've had houses with traditional floor plans and ones with open floor plans, and I much prefer an open floor plan. That's not based on what I was told to like, it's based on my own experience and how we actually use our house.
I would differ here, because "preferences" are exactly what developers have learned to control and direct. I can guarantee that not one person will say I like open floor plans because i am told to despite the fact I really hate them. But if you pay more for getting less, you are just jumping on the bandwagon, or you are very rich and can pay more to achieve preferences despite added costs. the fact is we are all so controlled by clever marketing that we are not even aware of, we do not know what our un-doctored "preferences" really are.
However I was talking about architecture. Open floor plans were only mentioned as an "also" example. We do not need to steer this thread into yet another debate over warehouse living vs homes with rooms, there are already 3,456,453,322 threads on that issue if someone wants to go debate the issue further. This thread is about McMansions. McMansions do not always have open floor plans - although they usually do have absurd two story 'great rooms"
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