Yeah, the idea of $1,000 a month for air conditioning boggled my mind.
We do have a lot of room for "demand destruction." If you lose your job, that's going to be one of the first places you cut. Even in Texas. It may mean shutting off part of the house, but you'd do it.
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THE McMansion Thread (merged)
Re: The end of the McMansion?
by Leanan » Sun 02 Oct 2005, 20:31:46
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Re: The end of the McMansion?
by Specop_007 » Sun 02 Oct 2005, 20:42:05
$1,000 a month for A/C?? What the hell, are they keeping the meat refridgerated on the counter?? 
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Abyss, the Abyss gazes also into you."
Ammo at a gunfight is like bubblegum in grade school: If you havent brought enough for everyone, you're in trouble
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Re: The end of the McMansion?
by emersonbiggins » Sun 02 Oct 2005, 20:43:35
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('fossilnut2', ' ')I don't see high energy prices impacting the economic class that's many of the families that live in Mcmansions. Do most families that make over 100 thousand a year feel the pinch of energy prices or is it more of an inconvenience? I also wonder if folks who buy vehicles for 35 thousand are really all that impacted by gas prices.
Of course, it's always the poorest amongst us that will get the shaft, but I would say that energy prices are beginning to affect everyone's purchase decisions, regardless of class. And if the discretionary purchases decline/stop, so goes the economy and that upper middle-class' 401K cushion and/or job, destroying everything along with it.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('fossilnut2', 'T')he other variable is that if folks are less enamored with their Mcmansions then the prices on those house are dropping dramatically. Is that happening where you are living? When I look at real estate prices the opposite is occuring across most of North America. If a house drops in price from 500 thousand to 400 thousand....that difference of 100 thousand and the interset on that money sure pays for many years of utility costs.
Not sure what you mean here. Chances are slim that you are going to 'sell high' and 'buy low' on housing, unless you are changing locations entirely. And don't forget: the credit cards & HELOCs are absorbing a lot of the energy increases & discretionary purchases right now. Just wait until the tide turns on the economy. Look out below on Wall Street.
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Re: The end of the McMansion?
by Leanan » Sun 02 Oct 2005, 20:56:03
$100,000/year is not really that much money, at least on the US side of the border. Assuming both parents work, that's $50,000/year each. Certainly comfortable (unless you live in a big city like NY), but not independently wealthy. Many such families are over-extended. They have a huge mortgage, and a second mortgage as well. Their credit cards are charged to the max - often for "good" reasons, like private school or medical care for the kids. If one or both parents loses their job, they're quickly in trouble.
IOW...it's not necessarily the higher energy costs that will cause demand destruction for people like that. It's the economic slowdown that will eventually be caused by ever-higher energy prices.
IOW...it's not necessarily the higher energy costs that will cause demand destruction for people like that. It's the economic slowdown that will eventually be caused by ever-higher energy prices.
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Re: The end of the McMansion?
by NeoPeasant » Sun 02 Oct 2005, 21:18:21
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '$')1,000/mo air conditioning bills? On average? WTF?
The excess and decadence of the American culture finally comes home to roost.
The excess and decadence of the American culture finally comes home to roost.
They built a whole neighborhood of all brick 3 car garage McMansions in what was a farmer field behind my house last year. So this summer when the evenings were cool, I opened the windows at night only to be kept awake by the constant drone of the AC compressors coming from the McMansions. When outside temps were in the 60's. Just because you can buy a real expensive house, doesn't mean you're not an idiot.
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Re: The end of the McMansion?
by emersonbiggins » Sun 02 Oct 2005, 21:44:01
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '$')1,000/mo air conditioning bills? On average? WTF?
The excess and decadence of the American culture finally comes home to roost.
The excess and decadence of the American culture finally comes home to roost.
They built a whole neighborhood of all brick 3 car garage McMansions in what was a farmer field behind my house last year. So this summer when the evenings were cool, I opened the windows at night only to be kept awake by the constant drone of the AC compressors coming from the McMansions. When outside temps were in the 60's. Just because you can buy a real expensive house, doesn't mean you're not an idiot.
You have my deepest sympathies with concern to your new neighbors.
Cheap AC has become a crutch for poor home 'design', if you can call it that, and shoddy construction materials & techniques. That crutch is quickly becoming an albatross for many of these newer McMansions, pushing them further onto the brink of becoming the newest ghettos, just as Kunstler had foreseen.
"It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."
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