If you've driven through North Scottsdale or Paradise Valley lately, you most likely have witnessed a good deal of home construction. The Luxury Home market has not suffered from the same downturn as the more median-priced home market. What the high-end housing market is suffering from is a lack of creative and common-sense design, and the inability to grasp the concept that the vast majority of us do not need and cannot fully utilize a 10,000 square foot home.
It seems most builders find it easier and more profitable to reuse floor plans and offer minor alterations to consumers as options. Often the only recognizable difference between homes on the same street is color and choice of stone veneer. But the consumer is not a victim, but, rather, an accomplice because they are eager to add their voice to the vanity-driven "bigger is better" mantra.
The exterior details on these McMansions (super-size it please!) consist mainly of eye candy that has become cliché and ubiquitous - arches that serve no purpose, ostentatious front entries, and cultured stone veneers applied in away that offer no hint of the structural functionality that their natural stone cousins once offered.
The interiors of these behemoths - at least those I have been in - are impersonal, offer an inefficient, wasteful layout, and feel more like a castle in need of defending rather than a home that offers shelter, comfort and functionality.
My wife and I, along with two cats and a dog, live in a 1550 square foot home and have never pined for more living space. Additionally, I would venture a guess that our 30 year old home is better built than the McMansions sprouting up like weeds today.
Recently, a very well-known architect made the following statement regarding these same weeds - "In twenty years, they will all be gone."
When that does happen, perhaps, as a society, we will be enlightened enough to appreciate a new mantra - "less is more."
Dana W. Ball
