Recession may redesign the American home
History hints that this downturn could change our taste in houses. Homes built in the 1940s and '50s were usually smaller and simpler than large, frilly Victorians that had been in style before the Great Depression and World War II.
By Elizabeth Razzi
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — What will new homes look like after this recession, which has brought construction nearly to a halt?
Consumers who have learned the bitter lessons about declining home values, burdensome debts and ephemeral retirement-savings values may well demand different houses than the ones that dot our recently built neighborhoods.
History hints that this downturn could change our tastes. Homes built in the 1940s and '50s, for example, were usually smaller and simpler than large, frilly Victorians that had been in style before the Great Depression and World War II.
Materials remained scarce for years after the war, and returning veterans, boosted by mortgage-assistance provided under the GI Bill of Rights of 1944, bought Levittowns full of simple new houses as quickly as they could be made.
Virginia McAlester, author of "A Field Guide to American Houses," said that after this recession she expects smaller homes built closer together, but with more attention to their positioning on the lot to better preserve privacy and the occupants' access to a little spot of nature.
At the turn of the last century, the wealthy lived in elaborate houses with 20 to even 40 rooms, which required a tremendous income just to keep them going.
"You just had such overbuilding of size," she said. "Now you have a lot of cul-de-sacs of great big, overbuilt houses way outside the city."
Already, new homes are being simplified compared with those built during the go-go years. "We are going to have far more small houses and attached houses," McAlester predicted.
The cost of building the roads, sewers and utility lines to serve compact neighborhoods is lower. Soundproofing will become more important when buyers are living closer to their neighbors, or to retail and commercial properties.
"People will put a whole lot more into what it requires to have it be comfortable to live in," she said.
Tomorrow's buyers may be more conscious of the amount of income associated with maintaining a large-house lifestyle.
"When you see people who have a whole room for a closet, or two-room closets, I mean, that reflects an incredible amount of discretionary income and wealth," she said.
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