One of them in the pic has two cars. Of course, the ass is sticking into the road a bit but ehhhh it counts.
In a lot of places you can get a ticket for blocking the sidewalk.
Iām thinking sidewalks arenāt being used much, if at all, in this fine Texas community.
Yeah maybe. An HOA would fine them for it regardless.
I wonder if youād be allowed to park on the street, like parallel park, blocking your own driveway? Or maybe there is guest parking. Otherwise I can never see how you would have company over. Or share that place with a significant other.
Otherwise, they donāt look too bad. Wished there were pics of the interior.
Mass transit of course..... Lol
Bottom right seems to be able to squeeze two cars.
While blocking the footpath making your disabled/pushchair-pushing/child neighbours life just a little bit more unsafe and harder.
disabled/pushchair-pushing/child
Uh, blocked sidewalks is the least of their concern if they live in these 1 bedroom houses. Where's the child going to sleep? In one of the two baths?
āItās ok to inconvenience people, because they probably have bigger inconveniences bothering themā
To me, a european, those urban areas packed with the same house over and over again always seem so depressing and boring. Is there any variety or does it look like this for kilometers miles?
Variety is against the HOA, you don't want to go against the HOA.
HOAs should be a thing of the past.
Ending HOAs is literally an act of antifascism.
nah, HOAs should have legally regulated limits on what they can and cannot do, sweden has HOAs too but basically all they do is pool together money to pay for infrastructure in the neighbourhood.
like, i for one quite like having paved roads and functional pipes, but i guess you do you.
like, i for one quite like having paved roads and functional pipes, but i guess you do you.
Do non HOA homes not have paved roads and working pipes?
There are no such areas, i'm not sure how you envision common infrastructure being maintained without an organization owning it?
Or do you just envision the municipality being in charge of maintaining your street's piping? Have fun waiting half a year for them to get to it when it breaks.
Or do you just envision the municipality being in charge of maintaining your street's piping?
That's how my neighborhood works.
Have fun waiting half a year for them to get to it when it breaks.
They're usually there within an hour if that happens.
When my wife and I were looking for a house. I automatically filtered any house part of an HOA. They really should be a thing of the past.
Unless actual buildings are attached, they shouldn't exist.
And buildings means a community park with an Olympic sized pool, at least. Only HOA I've ever heard of that made a tiny bit of sense, maintained a park, golf course, and pool for the community that lived there.
I agree, and these houses look way too small and overpriced for a comfortable family setting, but stating that identical homes packed next to each other is purely an American thing is disingenuous. Itās a byproduct of capitalism, which supersedes national borders
In Chicago there is one block just north of Wrigley Field that was a demo for a planned community decades ago. Each of the 10 or so connected houses on one side of the street are all different. The opposite side of the street is identical, but mirrored. That means the northernmost house on the west side of the street is identical to the southernmost house on the east side of the street. The effect is that it looks like a very unique and natural community in spite of being completely planned and regimented.
Thatās a better approach I think. Itās economically viable to make similar houses, but aesthetically and psychologically pleasing for houses to be different and unique, even if itās just a variation per house on a street and not every street itself
The houses in the middle across from each other would be the same house.
Those don't look as weird because they're connected. They look like a single building, which is okay to have a consistent style
It seems like a huge waste of vertical space. If they condensed all of that into a small 8-10 story building, they could create green spaces all around it for everyone to enjoy.
Lol, then there would be stairs. We're fat over here. We don't do stairs.
/s in tone, but seriously we don't do stairs.
I know.
Not only is it boring, it's made in the shittiest way possible. It's the American way, after all. You want properly installed outlets? What are you, some sort of royalty or something? Properly sealed windows? Look at Mrs. Moneybags over here. The siding is falling off the house? What did you expect from a $350k home?
Generally it is each subdivision, but it can be larger groups of homes like that.
They are depressing, but people buy them because they're generally new construction and represent good value. You get over it if it saves you enough $$$.
I've yet to go into any new construction that wasn't shit compared to the 100 year old house I grew up in. That place was rock solid. The only problem with it was a roof leak that was actually from the extension my parents had done on the 2nd floor (aka new construction). By comparison every time I go visit their new house they've uncovered some new shoddy workmanship from the shit builders that inly focus on cranking out houses as fast and cheap as possible. I hate so much that they sold their old place for this garbage I'm going to have to fix when I inherit it.
I agree, old homes have hella survivorship bias. But, you are playing roulette that nothing with fail immediately. The advantage of new construction is that you don't have to worrru about any stupid retrofits and that you know nothing will break for at least a little bit.
Or worry about all of the asbestos, lead, and formaldehyde -laced building materials that were all of the rage in previous decades.
All the yummy stuff?
I think Formaldehyde is a bigger problem in new construction than old. Asbestos and lead are harder to deal with though. Formaldehyde just needs ventilation and a few years of offgassing.
nothing will break for at least a little bit.
Has not been my experience. Yea the builder will usually fix it but I've seen them try to weasel out of that too.
This isn't what most houses are like in the US. Sure, there's a lot like them, but places that don't have a strong HOA (most places) become very diverse after a while. My home was built in the 60s and was initially very similar to the ones around it. Over time each house gets changed little by little and every house becomes unique.
What a poor use of land and space for housing. Why not increase density with at a minimum a duplex or triplex? This is ridiculous.
A lot of people donāt want to share walls.
āHey uh, I have 3 loud kids and a wife who is loud during sex. Wanna be my neighbor?ā
Then maybe develop the concept of a brick wall and social skills.
These types of houses won't protect you from noise. You're never more than 5m away from your neighbors and only separated by cardboard. You will hear them.
I'm currently living in an apartment building from 1910 or so, made from proper bricks. Hardly ever even notice that I have neighbors.
Can confirm. I currently live in the suburbs, with a fairly wide lot (100ft). In the warm months, there is almost never a moment of daylight where I can't hear lawn equipment (lawnmowers, leaf blowers, etc). And my house is well-built and sealed properly. For some reason, everyone thinks they need a giant riding mower or an enormous gas-powered leaf blower. There are lawn service contractors parked on the road almost all the time. The winter months aren't as bad, but snow blowers are out at the slightest hint of snow.
I had a much quieter experience when I lived in an apartment building. It's anecdotal, but it makes sense once you've lived in both.
Yeah, it's almost impossible to build with bricks in California. (Earthquakes)
It's a real shame we don't have any other methods of acoustical insulation...
Then try concrete instead. For European mid-rise firewalls, thatās pretty much standard.
Yeah man not just that, but if the neighbor has a bug problem, great now I have a bug problem.
You can still have an unexpected bug problem in a detached house. Shit happens.
A lot of people have very narrow lived experiences, but are happy to talk about imagined experiences.
What about neighbors who mow their own way 8am on a Sunday with their kids running around and screaming outside or their teenager blasting loud music out their bedroom window or every neighbor using some kind of noisy power tool because there's always someone doing renovations of some kind?
It's not because you live in a separate house that you will automatically have peace and quiet.
My current place is super quiet. I essentially never hear anyone and it's quite relaxing.
I'm on the sixth floor in a building with 100 units, it's just built well.
Exactly. If I'm working nights and need to use power tools in my home? No problem. In an apartment? Good luck
Unless you're living way out on a farm a mile away from your neighbors, even if you live in a detached home in a suburb, you still have to respect noise bylaws. Especially with power tools.
a farm a mile away
That is the dream for many. Lots of farm land is being turned into housing in this way.
what? do you think people in apartments never use power tools?
just keep it between 10 in the morning and 10 in the evening and you're fine.
I specifically mentioned working nights.... I guess I could've been more clear that the power tools are for work.
I have a small shop set up in my basement that allows after-hours work without disturbing the neighbours (two walls with 10ft+ between them will beat any apartment wall assembly for sound transmission), within reason for the noise I'm making of course.
Because three kids in this house would be whisper-quiet next door.
Reading this thread has taught me that soundproofing a shared wall isnāt possible in America.
You just underestimate how noisy women having orgasms can be. š¤£
If you can be heard through a decoupled double layered brick wall, you can also be heard through two wood frame walls standing 12 feet apart, especially when there are windows in them.
Not to mention half of the lot and interior square footage is dedicated to a car.
Right??? How about increased density with amenities at a maximum 15 minute walk distance and public transportation?
Where the fuck are the trees in that picture? Where's the shade? How far are things if everybody needs a car? How bad must traffic be in the morning and evening at rush hour? It's just a concentrated suburb with all of its problems intensified.
I live in a duplex. The downstairs neighbor is my roommates's mom and she's the most fucked up miserable person I've met in my life. Don't be like me.
Just because you happen to have a bad experience doesn't mean it's the same everywhere.
My last residence was a triplex. While the walls were thin, the tenants and the landlord living on the bottom floor were great. I made some good friends there. We looked out for each other. Had a real sense of community.
Texas in general is a poor use of land.
Why would you want 2 baths for a single bedroom house....
Have you lived with another human that needs to shit at same time as you? It definitely happens.
Just sit on the otherās lap and drop that double decker deuce, my friend. Also saves water with a single flush.
Hell yeah. Or if u have to piss while your wife is shitting just have her spread her legs and go in between. Gotta be on point with ur aim tho.
What if one of you is dropping nuggets and the other is ādraining the oil panā with a bout of IBS? You need to be sure whoās the bottom deck.
You underestimate my power.
Just get 1 bathroom with 2 toilets
Side by side or facing each other?
Facing one another so you can hold hands for support during your times of struggle.
Depends. Do you prefer cooperative multiplayer or competitive multiplayer?
Yes.
This can be solved by the technology of just waiting a few minutes until they are done.
If you have the space for two bathrooms then sure, go ahead, but the argument here is that there isn't really space for it.
Piss off. You've obviously never lived with someone and experienced the moments it was critical to use the toilet.
Ever lived with someone while both of you were ill and had diarrhea?
Your reply is ignorant.
You can have a separate half bath for guests.
That would be 1.5 bathrooms, not 2.
when you and your wife both have to take a massive shit in the morning
One for the ensuite, one for the "main" bathroom when guests are over or whatever. I assume there's still a living room of sorts.
I like that they don't even try to fit a bed in that small ass room
It's at the back of the room.
Do you people not have guests over? Do you want them traipsing upstairs and using your bath room?
Uhm yeah? In Europe it's pretty common to just have one bathroom and just... Wait for the other person to be done.
60m2 for people who donāt know yee haw units
It's actually pretty big if it weren't for the lawn and driveway.
Them's freedumb younuts to the laikes a you...
What's the use of having 2 bathrooms when there is only 1 bedroom?
If one half of a couple has IBS, a second bathroom is a necessity
100% bowl busting mood
If you're a couple, you can both use a toilet at the same time.
If you live alone you might want a separate bathroom for guests. The second one is possibly a half bathroom.
Understood. But with such limited space, wouldn't the home be better served with a guest room/study instead of a 2nd bathroom?
Having lived with partner for 10+ yrs, I'll take the 2nd bathroom every time
A double mattress can be larger than a bathroom.
A bathroom doubles as an inebriated guest bedroom
Right? We were just fine with 3 bedrooms and one bathroom for decades.
The bedroom is obviously upstairs and would have an adjacent bathroom. Assuming they have guests, the builders have put in a downstairs bathroom for them.
Bold of you to assume there's room for more than just the bedroom up there
What is amazing is that people would rather live like this, and have four feet of grass between them and their neighbors, than in a place twice as big with a shared wall...
A shared wall can be hell, and add on top the shared hallway, basement and trash containers.
I think they're referring to terraced housing
Oh, right. Yeah, that alleviates some of those problems, but for my personal situation it would still be worse than my own house:
can't blast music while WFH
can't have my dog because of barking
massively reduced area for photovoltaics because of safety distances on the roof due to fire code
no sitting outside together late, unless the gardens in the read stretch out far enough from the houses
The trick is to build houses out of double-insulated brick walls and concrete, not sticks of wood and cardboard.
The trick is to not build buildings out of wood and drywall.
Can't watch a movie past 10pm without my neighbors complaining. I can't have people over for a party. God i hate having shared walls. Never again if I can help it.
To each their own. I do hear all sorts of sounds coming from my neighbors in my apartment. From moaning to phone alarm vibrating, sounds of various objects hitting each other, even arguing sometimes.
Not to mention some people open their doors and windows when cooking, allegedly for the draft to get in and get the smell out of the kitchen (don't know why they do this, just open your damn window and that's it). And when the air goes the opposite way, the hallway of the building is a mix of various smells of whatever they cook.
Oh, by the way, did I mention I need to take the elevator to reliably reach my apartment?
here in sweden we do this amazing thing called "actually building things solidly", our apartment blocks are largely solid concrete and the only thing i hear from my neighbours is when their kids drop what i can only assume to be anvils onto the floor, which results in a faint thunk.
@Swedneck that's great. Here in Romania most apartments have this issue, especially those built in communism and after.
these apartment buildings are part of the million programme back in the 60's, where we churned out tons and tons of standardized high density housing eras much like your commie blocks.
So it's not a problem of being cheap or communist, it's a problem with effective execution.
And fwiw communist housing tends to generally be one of the better places to live, provided it's not that one fucked up place in russia where it's just highrises in a sea of parking lots.
@Swedneck I live in a communist era neighborhood myself, so I know how it is to live there. It's generally great, but the execution of the buildings was rather poor (mine included). Some say it was for the better surveillance of the inhabitants, others say it was just rushed building. Whatever is the case, it's still not pleasant knowing that you risk being heard by all the neighbors when you do the most normal noise.
And I like Russian blocks as well, provided they are those Hruschocskas (or Plattenbeau?) that are 5 storey high or less. We have some as well. The areas they're in is generally really green with tall trees, so it's really pleasant.
We generally use the term "commie block" to describe buildings during that area, but I included buildings raised after the '90s as well because the developers try to eschew regulations when building, so their quality is even poorer sometimes. That's not to mean that all buildings during these times have thin walls or floors either tho.
It's great to hear that the buildings where you live were raised with more attention to details like these though. Probably if I'd visit/live in one a bit I'd change my opinion about our buildings from that time as well. š
You canāt buy a shed for that price where I live. An apartment of that size would be $2500+ per month.
I donāt want this to be the future but itās better than a future where no one can buy anything at all.
Exactly. I saw the price and the sq ft. and I was like, damn, I wish that wasn't in Texas.
I fucking hate the real estate market where I live. So do all my roommates.
My wife and I finally decided to take the leap and buy back in 2022. We had been waiting for years for the āmarket to correctā and finally just decided that we needed to stop waiting. Within months interest rates became unaffordable, and theyāve only gotten worse since then. We would not be able to reasonably afford our current home with current interest rates. Itās insane. The whole thing is rigged.
"Listen, you're gonna live as the markets dictate. The labour markets, the consumer markets... are you listening?"
*me, lighting the Molotov coctail*
Ah-huh. Continue.
You don't have to be a wizard to cast a fireball
I wouldn't be surprised to find a fair amount of computer wizards skulking around Lemmy
The absolute state of American urban planning. Jesus.
US-americans: apartments suck, I want a single house
Also US-americans:
Meanwhile, in the civilised world:
The houses are so close together and have so little yard I don't see why they didn't just turn them into townhouses.
Probably local planning restrictions, they're quite fucked up in the states.
Plus, people are obviously superstitious about shared walls.
Honestly not a bad deal if you live alone. Make an offer for 130k and settle for 145k then get approved for a loan with APR around 5% and you could be making monthly payments under 600 USD for 20 years. That's a lot lower than rent, I'll tell you that, and you can get your equity back at the end when you move.
Only issue is the loan term, variable property value, and if you're actually buying the land or just the abode.
Not bad by today's horrid standards
Ftfy
What would you propose is a reasonable deal, then?
A shoebox like this should, in a reasonable world, be like 50k. Many years ago someone with a basic factory job could have a REAL home for a family of four on his income alone. Then boomers ruined everything and, now, people look at this bullshit as 'good.'
Yes by 2024 standards it's 'good'. But that's like saying only being 400k in debt after cancer treatment is 'good'
Yeah, but American homes are unsustainable in their sizes. What you're looking at there is already the norm in Japan. We don't need as much space as we use for single family houses in this country. Sure we have the space, but we also have a homelessness crisis. These tiny homes are a very good solution for that.
I will agree that $150,000 seems a bit higher than it should be, but depending on how close to San Antonio this is, that is fairly typical for a major city in pricing. If this is some suburb in the sticks, then yeah, they need to be asking around $75,000
Space isn't the issue here. We have more empty homes than we have homeless people.
Prices aren't astronomical because we're running out of space.
They are astronomical because we build too large. That accounts for the vast majority of home ownership cost increases. The average home size is up 230%+ from the 70s, or 300% per person.
This makes up the vast majority of the difference in prices seen since that time.
Other direct causes are that we add two or three car garages (30k+) and increased home construction standards ( which add cost up front but often save money long term).
When looking at a price per area, the price is almost static (after accounting for inflation).
I mean, if you're making $12 USD an hour, which is considered very low, then you're still only spending 28% monthly wages on the above example I gave, and you get to keep what you put in minus depreciation when you resell, sometimes at a profit. Like I said, it's way better than renting. Plus, these aren't trailer homes, they have an actual foundation and a connection to city sewer, so the probably don't depreciate very much if you take good care of it.
Yeah, the boomers fucked up the American Dream and now family homes aren't available to the majority, but the property in the image is not a bad deal at all and I stand by that opinion.
That price, but 1.5 to 2x the size so my shed house isn't 6' from my neighbors shed house
Yeah that's fair, I hope they're well insulated so you don't have to listen to your neighbors 24/7.
Don't forget the mortgage insurance for several hundred a month if you're not able to put that 30k down to pass the 20% thresshold.
PMI would be roughly $70/mo in the example they posted.
Cool now youāre only locked into a closet for the next 20 years
You can sell before your mortgage is repaid, and when you do you get to keep what is left after repaying the bank. It's called equity.
I live in an 800sqft home by myself. 1 bed, 1 bath. I have plenty of space.
You're not getting 5% APR on a fixed rate.
It's unlikely at this exact moment, for sure, but USA national average 30 year rate was below that less than two years ago, 2.65% in 2021, and it was below 5% for almost the entirety of the 2010s.
Good point
just get an apartment holy shit
That would probably be more expensive.
Fuck ownership! Rent everything!
You can buy apartments too. Specifically I think you buy the right to live there indefinitely and not the actual building.
dunno how it works in the US, but in sweden there are like 3-4 ways it can be done, and fwiw renting here generally comes with the right to continue renting however long you like thanks to very strict renters' rights laws.
I know two of the ways to own an apartment is either straight up owning the actual apartment itself (with some asterisks obviously because it's part of a building), and the most common form is to own the right to live there (and pay maintenance costs, which is why i find it pointless to own) and sell it on.
i mean you do realize that owning housing comes with maintenance costs, right? why would i spend money i probably don't actually have to buy a house when an apartment would have about the same rent as the maintenance costs (and the ability to just move if the apartment is flooded or whatever)?
Home maintenance sucks, but its not that expensive. Certainty basics are on YT. If it were a real challenge then apartments wouldn't exist either. How often does your building need a new roof?
The second car in the bottom driveway is partly in the road. This first cat is either partly in a garage, or missing. The driveways are so close that there is no street parking. I have concerns about buses (think school, not public transit) and garbage day.
If you look at the front view of the house, it's clear the roof overhangs the driveway by about a meter.
That price makes no sense.
Of course, it does! Tiny homes are hip now, and they still want to fuck us for every penny we have.
What the actual fuck is that?
It's like a fully detached apartment you can buy.
Honestly, I'd rather have one of those shipping container homes. Above that, I'll live in a fucking trailer park.
Yeah it seems insulting that they could have boxed that space out for extra room. But they didn't. Instead they gave it an artsy flair. Like we're supposed to be happy with the damn things.
Why 2 bath? What idiot came up with this?
Two people who share bedroom can use bathrooms at the same time
I suppose it also has a living room, so the 2nd bath is a toilet for guests?
They took the enshitment too literally
Why would you need two bathrooms if you've only got one bedroom??
Two people living together and getting ready at the same time. Not the end of the world but can be helpful.
For fucks sake just drop four shipping containers, rig them, dry wall them, and walk away. 150k for that and it's got a little fancy art fling to it? That's fucking insulting.
Literally half the house is a garage. This is fucking hell.
It's not even a garage.
people will complain about being forced to live in pods and then willingly live in places like this
Willingly is a strong word when the housing market is so fucked
Maybe those arenāt the same people.
I mean my first house was a two bed, 1 bath 900sq ft cape code in a much cheaper market. I paid 100k for it in 2005.
Honestly that seems like a pretty good deal for a first home. If you can come up with 10% down youāll be paying ~1500 a month. Refi when rates go down and you could be close to 1k/mo.
I love that Americans would still rather have crappy rectangles of lawn that they never use for anything than build up to the edge of the plot and have more rooms. Those plots are probably slightly bigger than that of my three bedroom terrace house.
Blame the zoning laws for that. They require minimum setbacks on each side and a maximum floor area to land area ratio.
That's not terrible honestly. The price will vary widely depending on where it is. It seems like a good low maintenance place.
Yeah I don't see the issue here. My 2 bedroom condo costs more and doesn't have parking or a yard. I'd jump on an opportunity to own a place like that if it was in a walkable neighborhood or on a public transportation line.
It's not a 2 br. It's 600 square feet.
But agreed: housing is housing. 160k seems extortionate but that's housing.
600sq feet at that price is CHEAP here in Vancouver. The average home price is about $1.2m here, and that's getting you maybe 750 sq feet in a condo with a shitty strata(HOA), def not detached.
Can we get to the part where the rich get eaten yet?
It's cheap for here (NYC) as well.
My last house was 850 Sq ft and I wasn't using the dining room at all. That's enough space for one person or a couple.
That garage door is way to small and they forgot to build the appropriate house.
It just highlights how absurdly much space cars take up compared to people. Residents could have 25% more room to live if they didn't have to dedicate the space to car parking. (That parking is likely required by law as a minimum parking requirement in the zoning code, by the way, so it's entirely possible the person who ends up living there might not even actually want it.)
I'm begging developers to stop.
The problem isn't "not enough houses," the problem is rich fuck "investors" buying up all the empty houses to sit on them
No, don't stop building. The problem is rich fucks and their politician friends who won't implement any meaningful rules to curb the behaviour.
I'm a fan of the 'y'all can have one' rules for home ownership.
Anything after the first should come with cumulative tax penalties, +10% to the total value of your property assessment per property should be sufficient to start. So someone with three $1M homes is looking at a property tax bill of 130%.
While I am dreaming, I'd like a pony.
No, donāt stop building
If we're talking about dreaming, I'd like a world where humans keep to relatively small and dense habitable areas anf leave the rest of the natural world alone
We do legitimately need more housing. The population is always growing. The thing is we need sensible mid rise buildings with 1,000 sq ft 2 bedroom units. The hilarious thing is we could build them fast and cheap using modular techniques but the rent would still be horrendous because of the investors.
Lennar is an insanely bad builder. They have no quality control. Whole neighborhoods with out of spec engineering and they rely on people being unable or unwilling to fight them.
What's the dumb obsession with 2 bathrooms?
I've lived in several 1-toilet apartments in my life and am now a firm believer that all 1-toilet tenants have a god-given right to access to a backup toilet (such as in a laundry room or rec room on the apartment complex's campus)
a toilet is a VERY unfun thing to not have a backup of and suddenly it's not working
You and your significant other eat the same crappy food together and need to poop at the same time
It's like a suburban tract home developer with a case of brain worms tried to build townhomes based solely on a verbal description he got from space alien visiting Brooklyn for the first time, relayed over a cell phone with one bar of reception.
They're so tiny. They'd might as well make an apartment complex or multi-family homes.
at the very least put them into cottage clusters with centralized parking lots facing the road, that wins you a significant amount of space efficiency and makes it a way nicer area to be in.
seriously, look up photos of cottage clusters, it baffles me that anyone could say that's not the ideal way to do single family housing.
We need some 1500sqft 2br/2ba homes near major metro areas for under 400k. In todayās economy that would be achievable for most people.
The only options near major cities are 2500+sqft homes or 650sqft condos going for $700k+.
I donāt think I have ever seen a 2br/2ba detached homeā¦ itās either shoebox condos or 4+ bedrooms going for the same ridiculous 700k+ price tag.
The missing middle. The last city I lived in had a bunch of houses in the 1200sqft 2br/1ba range but they were built before 1950 and are now in the "historic" part of town that is zoned to prevent redevelopment. It's also the closest to the city center where many jobs are located and events like festivals take place. So it's a very desirable place to live and houses here sell for $1M+.
The next ring out from the historic district was built between the 50s and early 2000s and is largely 2000+sqft homes on larger plots of land. Large plots of land are desirable so those go for $800k+.
After the 2008 financial crisis we started building our third ring of housing with humongous "luxury" houses with 6+br. They're on tiny plots of land with maybe 6ft separating the houses, but since they have large sqft, granite countertops, and faux marble tiles in the bathroom they go for $700k+.
Oh yeah and housing has been underbuilt since the 1970s so the vacancy rate is under 1%, and it's a smaller city (~200,000 people) so the job opportunities aren't plentiful and the best paying. I have no idea how so many of these houses are being paid for. I bet a lot of people that have bought since 2010 are house poor. Or a lot of them are cruising on super low interest rates.
That's by design.
No gutters
If you would leave out that damn car and made the house taller, you would have like 3 times the space, which is totally enough. Not for that money though.
ā Lawn
ā Driveway that fits two cars
ā Two baths
ā Not sharing walls with neighbor
That driveway does not fit two cars
One of them in the pic has two cars. Of course, the ass is sticking into the road a bit but ehhhh it counts.
In a lot of places you can get a ticket for blocking the sidewalk.
Iām thinking sidewalks arenāt being used much, if at all, in this fine Texas community.
Yeah maybe. An HOA would fine them for it regardless.
I wonder if youād be allowed to park on the street, like parallel park, blocking your own driveway? Or maybe there is guest parking. Otherwise I can never see how you would have company over. Or share that place with a significant other.
Otherwise, they donāt look too bad. Wished there were pics of the interior.
Mass transit of course..... Lol
Bottom right seems to be able to squeeze two cars.
While blocking the footpath making your disabled/pushchair-pushing/child neighbours life just a little bit more unsafe and harder.
Uh, blocked sidewalks is the least of their concern if they live in these 1 bedroom houses. Where's the child going to sleep? In one of the two baths?
āItās ok to inconvenience people, because they probably have bigger inconveniences bothering themā
ā same price as a real house for an adult
To me, a european, those urban areas packed with the same house over and over again always seem so depressing and boring. Is there any variety or does it look like this for
kilometersmiles?Variety is against the HOA, you don't want to go against the HOA.
HOAs should be a thing of the past.
Ending HOAs is literally an act of antifascism.
nah, HOAs should have legally regulated limits on what they can and cannot do, sweden has HOAs too but basically all they do is pool together money to pay for infrastructure in the neighbourhood.
like, i for one quite like having paved roads and functional pipes, but i guess you do you.
Do non HOA homes not have paved roads and working pipes?
There are no such areas, i'm not sure how you envision common infrastructure being maintained without an organization owning it?
Or do you just envision the municipality being in charge of maintaining your street's piping? Have fun waiting half a year for them to get to it when it breaks.
That's how my neighborhood works.
They're usually there within an hour if that happens.
When my wife and I were looking for a house. I automatically filtered any house part of an HOA. They really should be a thing of the past.
Unless actual buildings are attached, they shouldn't exist.
And buildings means a community park with an Olympic sized pool, at least. Only HOA I've ever heard of that made a tiny bit of sense, maintained a park, golf course, and pool for the community that lived there.
I agree, and these houses look way too small and overpriced for a comfortable family setting, but stating that identical homes packed next to each other is purely an American thing is disingenuous. Itās a byproduct of capitalism, which supersedes national borders
In Chicago there is one block just north of Wrigley Field that was a demo for a planned community decades ago. Each of the 10 or so connected houses on one side of the street are all different. The opposite side of the street is identical, but mirrored. That means the northernmost house on the west side of the street is identical to the southernmost house on the east side of the street. The effect is that it looks like a very unique and natural community in spite of being completely planned and regimented.
Thatās a better approach I think. Itās economically viable to make similar houses, but aesthetically and psychologically pleasing for houses to be different and unique, even if itās just a variation per house on a street and not every street itself
The houses in the middle across from each other would be the same house.
Those don't look as weird because they're connected. They look like a single building, which is okay to have a consistent style
It seems like a huge waste of vertical space. If they condensed all of that into a small 8-10 story building, they could create green spaces all around it for everyone to enjoy.
Lol, then there would be stairs. We're fat over here. We don't do stairs.
/s in tone, but seriously we don't do stairs.
I know.
Not only is it boring, it's made in the shittiest way possible. It's the American way, after all. You want properly installed outlets? What are you, some sort of royalty or something? Properly sealed windows? Look at Mrs. Moneybags over here. The siding is falling off the house? What did you expect from a $350k home?
Generally it is each subdivision, but it can be larger groups of homes like that.
They are depressing, but people buy them because they're generally new construction and represent good value. You get over it if it saves you enough $$$.
I've yet to go into any new construction that wasn't shit compared to the 100 year old house I grew up in. That place was rock solid. The only problem with it was a roof leak that was actually from the extension my parents had done on the 2nd floor (aka new construction). By comparison every time I go visit their new house they've uncovered some new shoddy workmanship from the shit builders that inly focus on cranking out houses as fast and cheap as possible. I hate so much that they sold their old place for this garbage I'm going to have to fix when I inherit it.
I agree, old homes have hella survivorship bias. But, you are playing roulette that nothing with fail immediately. The advantage of new construction is that you don't have to worrru about any stupid retrofits and that you know nothing will break for at least a little bit.
Or worry about all of the asbestos, lead, and formaldehyde -laced building materials that were all of the rage in previous decades.
All the yummy stuff?
I think Formaldehyde is a bigger problem in new construction than old. Asbestos and lead are harder to deal with though. Formaldehyde just needs ventilation and a few years of offgassing.
Has not been my experience. Yea the builder will usually fix it but I've seen them try to weasel out of that too.
This isn't what most houses are like in the US. Sure, there's a lot like them, but places that don't have a strong HOA (most places) become very diverse after a while. My home was built in the 60s and was initially very similar to the ones around it. Over time each house gets changed little by little and every house becomes unique.
It really just keeps on going. It's hell
What a poor use of land and space for housing. Why not increase density with at a minimum a duplex or triplex? This is ridiculous.
A lot of people donāt want to share walls.
āHey uh, I have 3 loud kids and a wife who is loud during sex. Wanna be my neighbor?ā
Then maybe develop the concept of a brick wall and social skills.
These types of houses won't protect you from noise. You're never more than 5m away from your neighbors and only separated by cardboard. You will hear them.
I'm currently living in an apartment building from 1910 or so, made from proper bricks. Hardly ever even notice that I have neighbors.
Can confirm. I currently live in the suburbs, with a fairly wide lot (100ft). In the warm months, there is almost never a moment of daylight where I can't hear lawn equipment (lawnmowers, leaf blowers, etc). And my house is well-built and sealed properly. For some reason, everyone thinks they need a giant riding mower or an enormous gas-powered leaf blower. There are lawn service contractors parked on the road almost all the time. The winter months aren't as bad, but snow blowers are out at the slightest hint of snow.
I had a much quieter experience when I lived in an apartment building. It's anecdotal, but it makes sense once you've lived in both.
Yeah, it's almost impossible to build with bricks in California. (Earthquakes)
It's a real shame we don't have any other methods of acoustical insulation...
Then try concrete instead. For European mid-rise firewalls, thatās pretty much standard.
Yeah man not just that, but if the neighbor has a bug problem, great now I have a bug problem.
You can still have an unexpected bug problem in a detached house. Shit happens.
A lot of people have very narrow lived experiences, but are happy to talk about imagined experiences.
What about neighbors who mow their own way 8am on a Sunday with their kids running around and screaming outside or their teenager blasting loud music out their bedroom window or every neighbor using some kind of noisy power tool because there's always someone doing renovations of some kind?
It's not because you live in a separate house that you will automatically have peace and quiet.
My current place is super quiet. I essentially never hear anyone and it's quite relaxing.
I'm on the sixth floor in a building with 100 units, it's just built well.
Exactly. If I'm working nights and need to use power tools in my home? No problem. In an apartment? Good luck
Unless you're living way out on a farm a mile away from your neighbors, even if you live in a detached home in a suburb, you still have to respect noise bylaws. Especially with power tools.
That is the dream for many. Lots of farm land is being turned into housing in this way.
what? do you think people in apartments never use power tools?
just keep it between 10 in the morning and 10 in the evening and you're fine.
I specifically mentioned working nights.... I guess I could've been more clear that the power tools are for work.
I have a small shop set up in my basement that allows after-hours work without disturbing the neighbours (two walls with 10ft+ between them will beat any apartment wall assembly for sound transmission), within reason for the noise I'm making of course.
Because three kids in this house would be whisper-quiet next door.
Reading this thread has taught me that soundproofing a shared wall isnāt possible in America.
You just underestimate how noisy women having orgasms can be. š¤£
If you can be heard through a decoupled double layered brick wall, you can also be heard through two wood frame walls standing 12 feet apart, especially when there are windows in them.
Not to mention half of the lot and interior square footage is dedicated to a car.
Right??? How about increased density with amenities at a maximum 15 minute walk distance and public transportation?
Where the fuck are the trees in that picture? Where's the shade? How far are things if everybody needs a car? How bad must traffic be in the morning and evening at rush hour? It's just a concentrated suburb with all of its problems intensified.
I live in a duplex. The downstairs neighbor is my roommates's mom and she's the most fucked up miserable person I've met in my life. Don't be like me.
Just because you happen to have a bad experience doesn't mean it's the same everywhere.
My last residence was a triplex. While the walls were thin, the tenants and the landlord living on the bottom floor were great. I made some good friends there. We looked out for each other. Had a real sense of community.
Texas in general is a poor use of land.
Why would you want 2 baths for a single bedroom house....
Have you lived with another human that needs to shit at same time as you? It definitely happens.
Just sit on the otherās lap and drop that double decker deuce, my friend. Also saves water with a single flush.
Hell yeah. Or if u have to piss while your wife is shitting just have her spread her legs and go in between. Gotta be on point with ur aim tho.
What if one of you is dropping nuggets and the other is ādraining the oil panā with a bout of IBS? You need to be sure whoās the bottom deck.
You underestimate my power.
Just get 1 bathroom with 2 toilets
Side by side or facing each other?
Facing one another so you can hold hands for support during your times of struggle.
Depends. Do you prefer cooperative multiplayer or competitive multiplayer?
Yes.
This can be solved by the technology of just waiting a few minutes until they are done.
If you have the space for two bathrooms then sure, go ahead, but the argument here is that there isn't really space for it.
Piss off. You've obviously never lived with someone and experienced the moments it was critical to use the toilet.
Ever lived with someone while both of you were ill and had diarrhea?
Your reply is ignorant.
You can have a separate half bath for guests.
That would be 1.5 bathrooms, not 2.
when you and your wife both have to take a massive shit in the morning
One for the ensuite, one for the "main" bathroom when guests are over or whatever. I assume there's still a living room of sorts.
You are right, check out the 3D tour:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7117-Elm-Cv-San-Antonio-TX-78244/2053945461_zpid/
Looks really cramped...
I like that they don't even try to fit a bed in that small ass room
It's at the back of the room.
Do you people not have guests over? Do you want them traipsing upstairs and using your bath room?
Uhm yeah? In Europe it's pretty common to just have one bathroom and just... Wait for the other person to be done.
60m2 for people who donāt know yee haw units
It's actually pretty big if it weren't for the lawn and driveway.
Them's freedumb younuts to the laikes a you...
What's the use of having 2 bathrooms when there is only 1 bedroom?
If one half of a couple has IBS, a second bathroom is a necessity
100% bowl busting mood
If you're a couple, you can both use a toilet at the same time.
If you live alone you might want a separate bathroom for guests. The second one is possibly a half bathroom.
Understood. But with such limited space, wouldn't the home be better served with a guest room/study instead of a 2nd bathroom?
Having lived with partner for 10+ yrs, I'll take the 2nd bathroom every time
A double mattress can be larger than a bathroom.
A bathroom doubles as an inebriated guest bedroom
Right? We were just fine with 3 bedrooms and one bathroom for decades.
The bedroom is obviously upstairs and would have an adjacent bathroom. Assuming they have guests, the builders have put in a downstairs bathroom for them.
Bold of you to assume there's room for more than just the bedroom up there
What is amazing is that people would rather live like this, and have four feet of grass between them and their neighbors, than in a place twice as big with a shared wall...
A shared wall can be hell, and add on top the shared hallway, basement and trash containers.
I think they're referring to terraced housing
Oh, right. Yeah, that alleviates some of those problems, but for my personal situation it would still be worse than my own house:
The trick is to build houses out of double-insulated brick walls and concrete, not sticks of wood and cardboard.
The trick is to not build buildings out of wood and drywall.
Can't watch a movie past 10pm without my neighbors complaining. I can't have people over for a party. God i hate having shared walls. Never again if I can help it.
To each their own. I do hear all sorts of sounds coming from my neighbors in my apartment. From moaning to phone alarm vibrating, sounds of various objects hitting each other, even arguing sometimes.
Not to mention some people open their doors and windows when cooking, allegedly for the draft to get in and get the smell out of the kitchen (don't know why they do this, just open your damn window and that's it). And when the air goes the opposite way, the hallway of the building is a mix of various smells of whatever they cook.
Oh, by the way, did I mention I need to take the elevator to reliably reach my apartment?
here in sweden we do this amazing thing called "actually building things solidly", our apartment blocks are largely solid concrete and the only thing i hear from my neighbours is when their kids drop what i can only assume to be anvils onto the floor, which results in a faint thunk.
@Swedneck that's great. Here in Romania most apartments have this issue, especially those built in communism and after.
these apartment buildings are part of the million programme back in the 60's, where we churned out tons and tons of standardized high density housing eras much like your commie blocks.
So it's not a problem of being cheap or communist, it's a problem with effective execution.
And fwiw communist housing tends to generally be one of the better places to live, provided it's not that one fucked up place in russia where it's just highrises in a sea of parking lots.
@Swedneck I live in a communist era neighborhood myself, so I know how it is to live there. It's generally great, but the execution of the buildings was rather poor (mine included). Some say it was for the better surveillance of the inhabitants, others say it was just rushed building. Whatever is the case, it's still not pleasant knowing that you risk being heard by all the neighbors when you do the most normal noise.
And I like Russian blocks as well, provided they are those Hruschocskas (or Plattenbeau?) that are 5 storey high or less. We have some as well. The areas they're in is generally really green with tall trees, so it's really pleasant.
We generally use the term "commie block" to describe buildings during that area, but I included buildings raised after the '90s as well because the developers try to eschew regulations when building, so their quality is even poorer sometimes. That's not to mean that all buildings during these times have thin walls or floors either tho.
It's great to hear that the buildings where you live were raised with more attention to details like these though. Probably if I'd visit/live in one a bit I'd change my opinion about our buildings from that time as well. š
You canāt buy a shed for that price where I live. An apartment of that size would be $2500+ per month.
I donāt want this to be the future but itās better than a future where no one can buy anything at all.
Exactly. I saw the price and the sq ft. and I was like, damn, I wish that wasn't in Texas.
I fucking hate the real estate market where I live. So do all my roommates.
My wife and I finally decided to take the leap and buy back in 2022. We had been waiting for years for the āmarket to correctā and finally just decided that we needed to stop waiting. Within months interest rates became unaffordable, and theyāve only gotten worse since then. We would not be able to reasonably afford our current home with current interest rates. Itās insane. The whole thing is rigged.
"Listen, you're gonna live as the markets dictate. The labour markets, the consumer markets... are you listening?"
*me, lighting the Molotov coctail*
Ah-huh. Continue.
You don't have to be a wizard to cast a fireball
I wouldn't be surprised to find a fair amount of computer wizards skulking around Lemmy
The absolute state of American urban planning. Jesus.
US-americans: apartments suck, I want a single house
Also US-americans:
Meanwhile, in the civilised world:
The houses are so close together and have so little yard I don't see why they didn't just turn them into townhouses.
Probably local planning restrictions, they're quite fucked up in the states.
Plus, people are obviously superstitious about shared walls.
Honestly not a bad deal if you live alone. Make an offer for 130k and settle for 145k then get approved for a loan with APR around 5% and you could be making monthly payments under 600 USD for 20 years. That's a lot lower than rent, I'll tell you that, and you can get your equity back at the end when you move.
Only issue is the loan term, variable property value, and if you're actually buying the land or just the abode.
Ftfy
What would you propose is a reasonable deal, then?
A shoebox like this should, in a reasonable world, be like 50k. Many years ago someone with a basic factory job could have a REAL home for a family of four on his income alone. Then boomers ruined everything and, now, people look at this bullshit as 'good.'
Yes by 2024 standards it's 'good'. But that's like saying only being 400k in debt after cancer treatment is 'good'
Yeah, but American homes are unsustainable in their sizes. What you're looking at there is already the norm in Japan. We don't need as much space as we use for single family houses in this country. Sure we have the space, but we also have a homelessness crisis. These tiny homes are a very good solution for that.
I will agree that $150,000 seems a bit higher than it should be, but depending on how close to San Antonio this is, that is fairly typical for a major city in pricing. If this is some suburb in the sticks, then yeah, they need to be asking around $75,000
Space isn't the issue here. We have more empty homes than we have homeless people.
Prices aren't astronomical because we're running out of space.
They are astronomical because we build too large. That accounts for the vast majority of home ownership cost increases. The average home size is up 230%+ from the 70s, or 300% per person.
This makes up the vast majority of the difference in prices seen since that time.
Other direct causes are that we add two or three car garages (30k+) and increased home construction standards ( which add cost up front but often save money long term).
When looking at a price per area, the price is almost static (after accounting for inflation).
I mean, if you're making $12 USD an hour, which is considered very low, then you're still only spending 28% monthly wages on the above example I gave, and you get to keep what you put in minus depreciation when you resell, sometimes at a profit. Like I said, it's way better than renting. Plus, these aren't trailer homes, they have an actual foundation and a connection to city sewer, so the probably don't depreciate very much if you take good care of it.
Yeah, the boomers fucked up the American Dream and now family homes aren't available to the majority, but the property in the image is not a bad deal at all and I stand by that opinion.
That price, but 1.5 to 2x the size so my
shedhouse isn't 6' from my neighborsshedhouseYeah that's fair, I hope they're well insulated so you don't have to listen to your neighbors 24/7.
Don't forget the mortgage insurance for several hundred a month if you're not able to put that 30k down to pass the 20% thresshold.
PMI would be roughly $70/mo in the example they posted.
Cool now youāre only locked into a closet for the next 20 years
You can sell before your mortgage is repaid, and when you do you get to keep what is left after repaying the bank. It's called equity.
I live in an 800sqft home by myself. 1 bed, 1 bath. I have plenty of space.
You're not getting 5% APR on a fixed rate.
It's unlikely at this exact moment, for sure, but USA national average 30 year rate was below that less than two years ago, 2.65% in 2021, and it was below 5% for almost the entirety of the 2010s.
Good point
just get an apartment holy shit
That would probably be more expensive.
Fuck ownership! Rent everything!
You can buy apartments too. Specifically I think you buy the right to live there indefinitely and not the actual building.
dunno how it works in the US, but in sweden there are like 3-4 ways it can be done, and fwiw renting here generally comes with the right to continue renting however long you like thanks to very strict renters' rights laws.
I know two of the ways to own an apartment is either straight up owning the actual apartment itself (with some asterisks obviously because it's part of a building), and the most common form is to own the right to live there (and pay maintenance costs, which is why i find it pointless to own) and sell it on.
i mean you do realize that owning housing comes with maintenance costs, right? why would i spend money i probably don't actually have to buy a house when an apartment would have about the same rent as the maintenance costs (and the ability to just move if the apartment is flooded or whatever)?
Home maintenance sucks, but its not that expensive. Certainty basics are on YT. If it were a real challenge then apartments wouldn't exist either. How often does your building need a new roof?
I thought this was a farce. It is real
"Housing is cheaper in Texas!"
The second car in the bottom driveway is partly in the road. This first cat is either partly in a garage, or missing. The driveways are so close that there is no street parking. I have concerns about buses (think school, not public transit) and garbage day.
If you look at the front view of the house, it's clear the roof overhangs the driveway by about a meter.
That price makes no sense.
Of course, it does! Tiny homes are hip now, and they still want to fuck us for every penny we have.
What the actual fuck is that?
It's like a fully detached apartment you can buy.
Honestly, I'd rather have one of those shipping container homes. Above that, I'll live in a fucking trailer park.
Yeah it seems insulting that they could have boxed that space out for extra room. But they didn't. Instead they gave it an artsy flair. Like we're supposed to be happy with the damn things.
Why 2 bath? What idiot came up with this?
Two people who share bedroom can use bathrooms at the same time
I suppose it also has a living room, so the 2nd bath is a toilet for guests?
They took the enshitment too literally
Why would you need two bathrooms if you've only got one bedroom??
Two people living together and getting ready at the same time. Not the end of the world but can be helpful.
For fucks sake just drop four shipping containers, rig them, dry wall them, and walk away. 150k for that and it's got a little fancy art fling to it? That's fucking insulting.
Literally half the house is a garage.This is fucking hell.It's not even a garage.
people will complain about being forced to live in pods and then willingly live in places like this
Willingly is a strong word when the housing market is so fucked
Maybe those arenāt the same people.
I mean my first house was a two bed, 1 bath 900sq ft cape code in a much cheaper market. I paid 100k for it in 2005.
Honestly that seems like a pretty good deal for a first home. If you can come up with 10% down youāll be paying ~1500 a month. Refi when rates go down and you could be close to 1k/mo.
I love that Americans would still rather have crappy rectangles of lawn that they never use for anything than build up to the edge of the plot and have more rooms. Those plots are probably slightly bigger than that of my three bedroom terrace house.
Blame the zoning laws for that. They require minimum setbacks on each side and a maximum floor area to land area ratio.
That's not terrible honestly. The price will vary widely depending on where it is. It seems like a good low maintenance place.
Yeah I don't see the issue here. My 2 bedroom condo costs more and doesn't have parking or a yard. I'd jump on an opportunity to own a place like that if it was in a walkable neighborhood or on a public transportation line.
It's not a 2 br. It's 600 square feet.
But agreed: housing is housing. 160k seems extortionate but that's housing.
600sq feet at that price is CHEAP here in Vancouver. The average home price is about $1.2m here, and that's getting you maybe 750 sq feet in a condo with a shitty strata(HOA), def not detached.
Can we get to the part where the rich get eaten yet?
It's cheap for here (NYC) as well.
My last house was 850 Sq ft and I wasn't using the dining room at all. That's enough space for one person or a couple.
That garage door is way to small and they forgot to build the appropriate house.
It just highlights how absurdly much space cars take up compared to people. Residents could have 25% more room to live if they didn't have to dedicate the space to car parking. (That parking is likely required by law as a minimum parking requirement in the zoning code, by the way, so it's entirely possible the person who ends up living there might not even actually want it.)
I'm begging developers to stop.
The problem isn't "not enough houses," the problem is rich fuck "investors" buying up all the empty houses to sit on them
No, don't stop building. The problem is rich fucks and their politician friends who won't implement any meaningful rules to curb the behaviour.
I'm a fan of the 'y'all can have one' rules for home ownership. Anything after the first should come with cumulative tax penalties, +10% to the total value of your property assessment per property should be sufficient to start. So someone with three $1M homes is looking at a property tax bill of 130%.
While I am dreaming, I'd like a pony.
If we're talking about dreaming, I'd like a world where humans keep to relatively small and dense habitable areas anf leave the rest of the natural world alone
We do legitimately need more housing. The population is always growing. The thing is we need sensible mid rise buildings with 1,000 sq ft 2 bedroom units. The hilarious thing is we could build them fast and cheap using modular techniques but the rent would still be horrendous because of the investors.
Pro: Can walk to Whataburger and Gold's Gym
Con: Literally directly underneath high voltage wires
Lennar is an insanely bad builder. They have no quality control. Whole neighborhoods with out of spec engineering and they rely on people being unable or unwilling to fight them.
What's the dumb obsession with 2 bathrooms?
I've lived in several 1-toilet apartments in my life and am now a firm believer that all 1-toilet tenants have a god-given right to access to a backup toilet (such as in a laundry room or rec room on the apartment complex's campus)
a toilet is a VERY unfun thing to not have a backup of and suddenly it's not working
You and your significant other eat the same crappy food together and need to poop at the same time
It's like a suburban tract home developer with a case of brain worms tried to build townhomes based solely on a verbal description he got from space alien visiting Brooklyn for the first time, relayed over a cell phone with one bar of reception.
They're so tiny. They'd might as well make an apartment complex or multi-family homes.
at the very least put them into cottage clusters with centralized parking lots facing the road, that wins you a significant amount of space efficiency and makes it a way nicer area to be in.
seriously, look up photos of cottage clusters, it baffles me that anyone could say that's not the ideal way to do single family housing.
We need some 1500sqft 2br/2ba homes near major metro areas for under 400k. In todayās economy that would be achievable for most people.
The only options near major cities are 2500+sqft homes or 650sqft condos going for $700k+.
I donāt think I have ever seen a 2br/2ba detached homeā¦ itās either shoebox condos or 4+ bedrooms going for the same ridiculous 700k+ price tag.
The missing middle. The last city I lived in had a bunch of houses in the 1200sqft 2br/1ba range but they were built before 1950 and are now in the "historic" part of town that is zoned to prevent redevelopment. It's also the closest to the city center where many jobs are located and events like festivals take place. So it's a very desirable place to live and houses here sell for $1M+.
The next ring out from the historic district was built between the 50s and early 2000s and is largely 2000+sqft homes on larger plots of land. Large plots of land are desirable so those go for $800k+.
After the 2008 financial crisis we started building our third ring of housing with humongous "luxury" houses with 6+br. They're on tiny plots of land with maybe 6ft separating the houses, but since they have large sqft, granite countertops, and faux marble tiles in the bathroom they go for $700k+.
Oh yeah and housing has been underbuilt since the 1970s so the vacancy rate is under 1%, and it's a smaller city (~200,000 people) so the job opportunities aren't plentiful and the best paying. I have no idea how so many of these houses are being paid for. I bet a lot of people that have bought since 2010 are house poor. Or a lot of them are cruising on super low interest rates.
That's by design.
No gutters
If you would leave out that damn car and made the house taller, you would have like 3 times the space, which is totally enough. Not for that money though.