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The next slum?

Feb 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 pm by Dr. S

McMansions.

Posted in Our Booming Economy, Recession Depression

5 Responses to “The next slum?”

on 22 Feb 2008 at 3:24 pm1Mad Martigan

I guess they wouldn’t work for low-income, subsadized housing. Way out in the burbs with no sidewalks or bus-lines, far from any services. Pretty tough on the inmates without a car and a fuel budget. Too bad, since most of them would hold 4-5 famlies. Oh wait, state-run housing would be too much like socialism. Nevermind.
on 22 Feb 2008 at 6:29 pm2PurpleGirl

Interesting article. I’ll keep my one-bedroom in NYC. (My sister wanted my parents to buy me a house but knowing my long-term economics I wanted a co-op apartment.)

McMansions will be hard to break up into apartments. Their layouts tend to be very asymetrical, rooms open into rooms and not into hallways or foyers (or the foyers are large enough to be a living room itself), central areas are often double-high or cathedral ceilings and are expensive to heat/cool. Although some of those master bedroom suites could be studio apartments, the problem is providing a separate entrance for the suite and installing cooking facilities. Those buildings are going to be big problems as they require upkeep and renovation.
on 23 Feb 2008 at 4:05 am3Izquierdo

Here at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, the older cities and suburbs have been intensifying and densifying residentially, but less so commercially.
Developers are learning how to build compact residential projects, but are still putting up conventional shopping centers to service them.
on 23 Feb 2008 at 9:53 am4PSoTD

I think you may see a couple of things happen with these houses. One thing might be rezoning for office/home - you see this done with mansions of the past being converted into offices, and if zoning can allow for more parking area, you may see the same thing here. Before that happens, though, I suspect you’ll see a big trend of group homes getting to the McMansion areas - six bathroom homes clamor for a people density for using such, and if prices are driven down, that can happen.
on 23 Feb 2008 at 11:17 am5Lbd

I live in an old suburb that has lots of big old houses. When we first moved into the neighborhood a decade ago there were many group homes–both institutional and private. The housing boom turned that around, but I’m sure we’ll see a return to group homes over the next few years.