|   OT real estate rant | bob
Apr 29, 2003 10:52 AM | | I live in SE FL and I'm considering selling my present home and buying a larger one. Time to move out of our starter home and into something nicer. Apparently the trend around here is gated communities,large homes on small lots,community fees, and you can't cut your own grass. You can almost stand between the homes, hold out your arms, and touch each home...not quite but almost. This is insanity. What ever happened to nice houses on nice lots with no gates or communtiy fees like I grew up in? Maybe I want to cut my own grass! Is this the trend in other parts of the country?
Bob |
| well... | erolthegreat
Apr 29, 2003 11:02 AM | | Unfortunately people prefer it that way. Otherwise they wouldn't be building so many. It sucks, IMO. For a alternative explanation of why the majority of people like to wall themselves off in gated developments maybe it's time to rent Bowling for Columbine (not sure if it's out yet). |
| How do you paint the 2nd floor with a ladder? | Chester
Apr 29, 2003 11:55 AM | | I went to one of these developments which has two floor houses. Like the ones you've seen you can just about touch finger tip to finger tip from one house to the next. Exactly 6 feet apart at the development I visited.
Having just painted my 2 floor house, I was very familiar with the recommended safety requirements of placing a extension ladder so many feet from the base of the house. So I ask the agent...What if the neighbor plants a hedge or flower on his 3 feet...How can I place the base of my ladder only 3 feet away from the house and still reach the upper top wall surface etc. and the eves?
He looked at curious as to why I should ask such a unusual question, but he was sure, somewhere in the bylaws of the association there was a clause that would allow for ladder placement such that it could be done. Back at the sales office I asked to see the bylaws etc, but after showing me a packet they couldn't locate any clause that would force a neighbor to give up his three feet of property, with or without a fence involved to place my ladder safely against my house.
Then the Supervisor said......"well, you could always erect scaffolding" I said, "heck, even scaffolding takes a full three feet and you still need some room to work in?
Needless to say, such "pesky" questions are not part of the normal questions you are suppose to ask these people.
Oh yes, did I tell you that the average front yard from garage door to sidewalk, is barely enough to fit the average full sized auto with only inches on either end to spare. Back yard has about enough to place a 6 foot chaise lounge end to end.
But the house is HUGE........Just stay inside!
Me, I'm not moving. I have a large yard, and can still place ladders on my house. I am even allowed to mow my lawn.....with any mower I choose.
Chester |
| excellent story! (nm) | Titan
Apr 29, 2003 2:48 PM | | |
| re: OT real estate rant | Wreckless
Apr 29, 2003 11:59 AM | | They are still out there. Just look towards something built before everyone decided to live like sheep in a pen. Gated communities are the trend for some reason but they are not for me. We just moved away from town onto a couple of acres. Can only see one other house, and other than me, no one gives a flip if I mow the lawn or not. keep looking! Good luck
Gary(always bucking the trend) |
| Here in CO too. | 2melow
Apr 29, 2003 12:15 PM | | We're looking to buy our first home, and it seems like $200K will get you a 3 bedroom, 2 car garage 1300 sq ft house on a 5000 sq ft. lot for new houses. We bagged that idea and are looking at the 50's and 60's style houses that actually have some privacy and yard.
The older ranch style houses are pretty cool, imho. A lot better than the smurf village type stuff that all look the same with gates, tennis courts, and a community swimming pool.
I think the trend is everywhere. |
| Has anyone seen this? | bob
Apr 29, 2003 12:47 PM | | The developement I'm considering isn't something I've seen before. The front of the houses sit almost on the street front like older inner city houses. The garage is in the rear and is accessed by an alley that runs down the middle of the block. There are many green spaces and parks. Anyone seen a neighborhood like this? I've only seen it on paper.
Lot size is 55 x 130. $280K will get you 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, den (or 5th bedroom), family room, living room, and two car garage....total footage (under A/C) is 2,700 sq feet.
Bob |
| Yep! | Steve-O
Apr 29, 2003 1:01 PM | | These have been popping up around Chicago for the last 5-6 years... Here's an example:
http://www.prairiecrossing.com/
The trend is called New Urbanism and goes beyond garages on alleys and front porches...
http://www.cnu.org/
I've visited Prairie Crossing and it is a somewhat sterilized version of city living. The people that live there seem to like it though. Given the option of a community like this versus cul-de-sacs, massive lawns, and no sidewalks I'd take it... |
| Sure | Dug
Apr 29, 2003 1:09 PM | | That is becoming very common in St. Louis. Many of the builders are putting up these "row" homes trying to capture what exists (existed?) in say Georgetown or NY somewhere. For the most part I think they fail miserably, but people are buying them. Mostly singles or young couples are buying.
In addition, there is a large trend to build smaller communities around residential with commercial and retail w/in walking distance. Schools too.
Finally, a trend towards mixed use zoning, with retail on the lower level and retail above. I like that idea a lot. |
| Yep. New Urbanism here, too. www.eagleranch.com nm | bray
Apr 29, 2003 1:28 PM | | |
| Has anyone seen this? | mcd
Apr 30, 2003 12:13 PM | | My wife and 2kids and I are buying in a new community like that. This will be our 5th house in 7 years, so... Our hometown is an historic southern town, our first 2 apts there were built in 1899 and 1903, and our 1st house was built in 1925. All had porches that were set the exact same distance from the sidewalk, I could touch the houses next to mine...I could also walk to every bar, restaurant and shop, and my job in town. Our 2nd house was in the great burbs of Atlanta, 4bed,2 1/2bath, 2car garage on cul-de-sac with 3/4 acre lot. A minivan and riding mower in every yard! It was what I grew up in and was very nice for kids and neighbors, yet very sterile, and required me to drive everyday. Current house is in high desert with about 10acres, we can see neighbors about 1mile away out the back window, but have neighbors right across the street. There is no one within 2 miles for our children to play with, The grocery is 10miles away, so no walking there...
Long story short...after living in 3 very different types of houses and neighborhoods we have chosen to have close neighbors and a walking lifestyle over the ability to mow our own yard...Its not for everybody though. |
| See it more and more in SF Bay Area | wg
Apr 29, 2003 1:09 PM | | We chose to buy into a 1960's neighborhood with large lots. I just could deal with the idea of being so close to a neighbor that I was able to shake hands from our respective windows.
Dogs, kids, toys and stuff need room to spread out.
wg |
| re: OT real estate rant | moschika
Apr 29, 2003 1:15 PM | | the new stuff around here(Norcal) sounds just like that. we bought an older(built in 1954)ranch style house with a large enough house and good size lot to feel that it's sometimes too much.
only problem is that the fences are original too and you know people were much shorter in the past because all the fences in the neighborhood that haven't been replaced in the last 50 years are only about 4 feet tall. |
| counter point | dir-T
Apr 29, 2003 3:42 PM | | My SO and I are facing the same dilema as some of you although we won't be doing any 1st time home buying for a few more years. We agree that a house of some sort with a private yard large enough to occasionally walk around naked and run a dog on without being hassled would be ideal. However all of the affordable houses are in "house farms" with virtually no yard surrounded by identical homes (albeit not in gated communities). So we are for now content to rent our small apartment in an unusual section of town where we have about 1 acre to garden on and let our cats roam free without worrying too much about traffic.
But we also recognize that the high density of the house farms is keeping sprawl down. In the mean time, richies who are building their starter castles away from town, in the foothills, intrude on the views and cut off access to the national forest lands that border town. Their longer commute causes more pollution. In many cases they exclude people from using lands that they grew up hunting and berry picking on before the area was "discovered". There's lots of animosity over this.
So what to do? Save up for that ecologically and socially costly dream home like my folks had (when the worlds population was smaller and easier to disperse) or move on into a (most likely) cookie cutter house with a 5 foot strip of yard (hey I'm young and have lots of stuff I'd rather spend my free time on then mowing grass). Time will tell. |
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