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Modern homes have grown too large: Agree or disagree
Results so far:
| Agree | 73% | 974 votes | Total: 1336 votes | |
| Disagree | 27% | 362 votes |
Agree
by 'Rick Gray
Created on: August 17, 2010 Last Updated: November 07, 2010
Are modern American homes too large?
Absolutely. From every possible perspective, the over-sized and often architecturally hideous McMansion has outlived any possible usefulness.
Americans' bloated suburban houses, and the lots they sit on, represent an unconscionable waste of energy, land, water, and natural resources. They destroy the habitats of hundreds of useful species in order to provide an excess of shelter for America's shrinking family unit.
They represent an outdated psychology which equates happiness with conspicuous consumption – and a distorted economics premised on the bizarre notion that a people can borrow and spend their way to national prosperity.
Further, though this consideration is often overlooked, costly suburban houses contribute to the widening gap between the funding of public schools in the prosperous suburbs and those in inner cities and poor rural areas. School funding is tied to real estate taxes almost everywhere in the United States, with the result that suburban school districts have a strong financial incentive to encourage suburban sprawl. And, in a vicious cycle, many families have felt compelled to purchase McMansions they do not need in order to send their children to better-funded schools. This school-funding cycle helps to explain the popularity of sububan living and the decay of many of America's cities.
Since the onset of the present recession, Americans finally seem to have grasped that a house is an asset, to the extent that it provides necessary and comfortable shelter – but that it is only rarely an investment. With this realization, Americans have begun to outgrow their addiction to buying “too much house” with borrowed money.
The real estate market – long over-stimulated by all manner of Federal, state and local subsidies – is at long last responding to economic reality. The McMansion now seems an endangered species.
Yet the McMansion will almost certainly die hard. From the White House to the courthouse, politicians and their long-time allies – the home-builders, the realtors, the mortgage industry, the road-builders, and the automobile industry – will continue seeking ways to promote the “American Dream” of a oversized house on an oversized lot, located many increasingly expensive commuter miles from places of work.
No one in Washington – liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican – is talking about the policies American really needs – policies which eliminate subsidies and incentives which have, for decades, driven families to identify over-sized, inefficient, and unsustainable houses with the “American Dream”.
A better public policy would consist of at least these elements:
First, as an emergency measure to correct the over-supply of McMansions now depressing the real estate market – and thus, prolonging the recession – the Federal government must begin a program of buying up McMansions which are subject to foreclosure or which have already been abandoned. These purchases should be targeted, focusing on areas where the greatest over-supply of houses is creating the greatest drag on the real estate market. Moreover, the purchased houses should be demolished – and the developments in which they stand should be converted to conservation areas or public parks, or redeveloped as the eventual sites of energy-efficient workforce housing.
Second, to discourage the building of new McMansions, the Federal tax deduction for mortgage interest should be immediately ended for newly-built houses larger than 1800 square feet.
Third, to end the subsidization of home ownership which interferes with market forces, the government should begin the gradual phase-out of the mortgage deduction for all houses, and a more rapid phase-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Finally, states and localities should begin adopting new school funding formulas less reliant on real estate taxes – formulas which provide for greater fiscal equality between suburban, urban and rural school districts.
Even with such policies in place, for most Americans, home-ownership will remain an important goal. However, families should make their own housing choices without the subsidies by which government intervenes in the real estate market. In these changing times, the “American Dream” will naturally shift toward ownership of smaller, more energy efficient and more environmentally sustainable homes. All that is needed is for government to get out of the way.
Many special interests will oppose this transition, but they must, inevitably, fail. Like the medieval castle in the age of artillery, the McMansion – another monument to arrogance and conspicuous consumption – has outlived any possible usefulness.
It is time we all moved on.
Learn more about this author, 'Rick Gray.
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Disagree
by Karon Brandt
Created on: October 29, 2008 Last Updated: October 02, 2011
Homes cost money, but they can be your biggest and best investment ever if you plan ahead thoughtfully.
Our present generation is sandwiched between our parents and our children, and any of them might desperately need to share your roof some day. Be prepared.
We didn't start with a big home. It simply expanded with our family over the years. It's about 3000 square feet, which seems a bit much for three people, BUT it's not.
Owning a bit more of the American dream creates a good feeling! Forget fortress-like homes that speak of prestige and money or suggest you're in competition with the Joneses. Suggestion: if you can afford more space, buy it!
Thirty-five years ago, my husband and I bought a two-bedroom ranch house, with an add-on room attached to the back of the garage that had been a beauty shop. It was great for newlyweds.
After we had three children, we felt crowded for space and privacy. We wanted each child to have his/her own room, and we really needed another bathroom. Our contractor suggested that we look 20 years into the future and perhaps we wouldn't want so much space? Twenty years is forever; we couldn't understand his thinking process.
We expanded vertically, and our ranch house became a ranch "with a view." Our second floor contained a large walk-in closet for the whole family to store stuff in, a full bath with a shower, one large bedroom, and two smaller bedrooms. One room had 15 linear feet of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. As academics, those cases filled up within the first week.
Today, twenty-five years later, the house has 6 multi-purpose (bed)rooms, 2.5 baths, two garages, a 20 by 28 foot finished basement, and two well-insulated attics. The kids grew up and both boys moved away. I have remarried. My daughter still lives in her birth home. The upstairs bookcases are now filled with her personal collections of Barbie dolls and Breyer horses.
We considered moving to a smaller home. We even had the house on the market for 10 months, but it didn't sell. (It was mistakenly listed as a ranch house; not many buyers expected a two-story ranch.) Now we are very glad it didn't sell!
You know the old adage, "Our home is our castle." This is true. Your home fills with memories of a lifetime. Three kids grew up here. They climbed the trees out back and kept the yard filled with friends and activities. We experienced the childhood accidents and scrapes, and we buried several pets, over the years, in the backyard.
About 15 years ago, we filled in the swimming pool and planted three willow trees in its place. We replaced all the fencing, added a double carport, and created a turnaround in the driveway for shop guests and ourselves. The original owners would not recognize their house.
Although our "two-story ranch" may seem over-sized for three people, we love the versatility of how we can use "our space."
Each bedroom is decorated according to individual taste. We painted two bedrooms blue. My daughter's room has off-white walls and black carpeting filled with brilliant-colored-ge ometrical-shapes.
I have feminine, white-painted furniture. My husband chose large Mediterranean furnishings and a 15-foot wall mural of a nature scene. He now has a place to play his guitar any time he wants. We each have our own TV. We each have our own bathroom and personal closet space.
The upstairs bedroom that was created to store books and accommodate a guest, has now become a sunny-yellow sewing room. It also has a huge desk that allows me to constantly update several scrapbooks at a time for all of my family members.
The six-by-16-foot-long upstairs storage closet holds an unbelievable amount of stuff - clothing, blankets, pictures, and stacks of see-through plastic containers. If you can't find something, you go there and look for it.
Everything is organized, clean, dry, and readily available - no wet garages or stifling attics for storing our little-used valuables.
Is a six-bedroom-house a bit much for a family of three? No. The front-entry room is now our living room. At one time, it was the dining room that seated eight for the holidays. When the children were very young, it was their playroom, off the kitchen where I could easily watch over them.
The upstairs bedroom is now my daughter's in-home office. She also took over a 12- by 28-foot-room downstairs for her display room. (That had been the children's playroom when they were old enough not to need supervision.) The back bedroom is now an in-home shop for my retired husband to continue a hobby of his while making some extra income.
We have become used to the multi-use space, the PRIVACY, and the ability to spread out from one another. My husband can play his guitar, my daughter can play any kind of music, and I can happily write for Helium all at the same time without annoying one another. We meet in the kitchen for meals and share the living room to watch TV.
We have tried to be environmentally responsible. The house has four separate heating zones, all windows have been replaced with energy-efficient ones, the roof is new, everything has been fully insulated, and the furnace was replaced last year.
We think the biggest American dream is to own one's home in which to live, raise a family, and enjoy retirement.
If one of my sons would come back home to live, we have the space. If we decided to take in an elderly parent, we could. Many of our smaller-home friends are paying huge present-day costs for home additions to do just that.
Let me assure anyone who can afford it, a large home is a worthwhile investment. You can thoroughly enjoy it for many years, and it will serve you well.
Learn more about this author, Karon Brandt.
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