Speaking of sprawl, Alana Semuels writes about how homebuilders are returning to their pre-recession plans and practices:
LAS VEGAS—A decade ago, home builders put up thousands of new spacious stucco homes in the desert here, with marble countertops, ample square footage, and walk-in kitchen cupboards.
Then the recession hit, the values of these homes plummeted, and economists talked of the overbuilding of Las Vegas.
Now, though, developers are building once again, on projects derailed during the recession, including master-planned communities such as the 1,700-acre Skye Canyon, the 2,700-acre Park Highlands, the 1,900-acre Inspirada, and 555 acres of luxury living in an area called Summerlin.
The homes being built here and in many cities across the country look very similar to the ones built during the boom. Some, in fact, are even bigger. The average single-family home built in 2013 was 2,598 square feet, 80 feet larger than the average single-family house built in 2008, and 843 feet larger than homes built in 1978, according to Census Bureau data.
I think there are a lot of reasons for this. People are strongly predisposed to keep doing what they have been doing, what they know how to do, and what’s worked for them in the past. Builders build. They already have the designs and skills for the McMansions.
What’s unclear is whether people are buying them or whether they’d actually prefer something else. You don’t choose from the entire realm of possibilities when you go to buy a house but from among what’s actually on the market.
The size of the average new home increasing doesn’t surprise me. The market is in the upper half of income earners now, at most. At least locally I’m not seeing much in the way of started homes being built, unlike pre-bust. The average build can go up just by chopping off the low end. It would be like saying the size of Ford vehicles increased even though all they did was stop making their cheaper, smaller cars.