3 responses to “City of Walls of Greed?”

1. Strategies for Burnout

   June 17, 2006

   From Pete:

   The Wall Street Journal (6-16)noted that the new trend is away from Mc Mansions, Garage-Mahals, and Faux Chateaux, and toward smaller houses.

   Reasons are: aging population wanting smaller, cozier, easier-to-clean living spaces; higher mortage rates; and a general trend away from “bigger is better.”

   Developers who are building the bigger houses are losing money- so watch this trend to increase. People trying to sell these big houses are meeting resistance as well.

   Speaking of “big walls.” How about that Mills-Peninsula Hospital Parking-Garage wall at Trousdale and El Camino?

   Yikes- welcome to “Fort Burlingame.”

2. Joe Baylock

   June 19, 2006

   The Wall Street Journal article is excellent reporting. Here’s another excerpt:

   “And even some young coupes who have tried the big-house life are getting out of it, trading space for higher-quality construction. Last October, Andrew and Sherri Leppert of Alpharetta, Ga., both 32, exchanged their four-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home for a smaller one that has only three bedrooms and two baths–yet, at $450,000 cost 50% more. Ms. Leppert, a homemaker who now has a young child, says she was attracted by the new house’s details–including beaded-glass windows, wide-plank flooring and 9-foot-tall doors made of solid wood–which elevated it in her mind above the ‘Georgia sprawl’ house she was leaving. She and her husband never used the fourth bedroom of their old house, she says, and she doesn’t miss cleaning the extra space. ‘Taking care of it became a burden’ she says.”

3. Anonymous

   June 19, 2006

   Sallie, if you want to see real trees, take a drive up Skyline Boulevard, Woodside to the Bella Vista or the Mountain House. Yesterday evening the mist came through those beautiful trees and it was stunning!