3 ms·

Isn't the typical McMansion people complain about $1M+? That's definitely not text-book middle class - which would be closer to the median house - which is les

Isn't the typical McMansion people complain about $1M+? That's definitely not text-book middle class - which would be closer to the median house - which is less than half that price. There's not many places you're getting a 4 bedroom clown-house with a clown pool and 5 clown-y bathrooms and a 3-car clown garage for your 3 clown cars for $450k. And if you are, there's very few places this is a new-ish build. Most of the places you're getting something like this - it's like a 20+ year-old home in Montgomery Alabama or Akron Ohio or something... And usually this was once a nice house that someone renovated in the style of a clown for the McMansion buyer... You're either considering the average suburban home a McMansion or you think the top 10% is middle class. In fairness, both of these are common conceptions - but I think they're both worth critiquing.

cjohnson318 4y ago
> You're either considering the average suburban home a McMansion or you think the top 10% is middle class. If wealth were normally distributed, then the top 10% definitely wouldn't be the middle class. However, the way wealth is distributed, the average earner in the top 10% makes about $173K in 2020 dollars. Which is a lot in Louisiana, but not so much in SF or New York. https://www.epi.org/blog/wage-inequality-continued-to-increase-in-2020-top-1-0-of-earners-see-wages-up-179-since-1979-while-share-of-wages-for-bottom-90-hits-new-low/ https://www.epi.org/blog/wage-inequality-continued-to-increa...
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  You're not building a McMansion for less than $250 per square foot. And a McMansion is usually 3000+ sqft. In New York or LA or The Bay, you're not getting a McMansion for less than $2.5M. In Louisiana, you're not getting it for less than $800k. If anything - I think this pushes out who's buying a "real" McMansion probably closer to the top 5%. It's less affordable given where people live and how much more they cost where people make more money. Unless we're calling ugly 1800 sqft 3-bedroom suburban development houses "McMansions" - middle class people aren't buying them.
  - cjohnson318 4y ago
    > If anything - I think this pushes out who's buying a "real" McMansion probably closer to the top 5%. Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think America even has a middle class any more. The insanity of the housing market has really put that in stark contrast.
yamtaddle 4y ago
> Isn't the typical McMansion people complain about $1M+? The same style problems are heavily present in houses down to the high-$300k range around here. Straight-up visual gibberish, and not in the name of some kind of practical improvements as a trade-off—the contrary, if anything. Best I can tell, this has happened because complex façades and rooflines make a house look bigger. I've done a lot of house shopping over the years, and find that if I apply a McMansion-style-tuned eye to classically-styled houses, my guesstimate of square footage is consistently something like 30-40% low. Houses with a balanced and regular appearance and without a bunch of shit jutting out everywhere for no reason look smaller—by a lot—than a same-size McMansion.
steveBK123 4y ago
I do think it is very much a classism thing. Plant of "McMansion style" homes that Architectural Digest type snobs punch down on that are not $1M. Remember vast areas of this country have very cheap land. The demographics of people who enjoy writings like McMansion Hell skew much richer than the people living in that style of home. A McMansion style home in the burbs can cost about the same as a mediocre 1-2 bed / 1.5 bath in NYC.

cjohnson318 4y ago

> You're either considering the average suburban home a McMansion or you think the top 10% is middle class. If wealth were normally distributed, then the top 10% definitely wouldn't be the middle class. However, the way wealth is distributed, the average earner in the top 10% makes about $173K in 2020 dollars. Which is a lot in Louisiana, but not so much in SF or New York. https://www.epi.org/blog/wage-inequality-continued-to-increase-in-2020-top-1-0-of-earners-see-wages-up-179-since-1979-while-share-of-wages-for-bottom-90-hits-new-low/ https://www.epi.org/blog/wage-inequality-continued-to-increa...

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
You're not building a McMansion for less than $250 per square foot. And a McMansion is usually 3000+ sqft. In New York or LA or The Bay, you're not getting a McMansion for less than $2.5M. In Louisiana, you're not getting it for less than $800k. If anything - I think this pushes out who's buying a "real" McMansion probably closer to the top 5%. It's less affordable given where people live and how much more they cost where people make more money. Unless we're calling ugly 1800 sqft 3-bedroom suburban development houses "McMansions" - middle class people aren't buying them.
- cjohnson318 4y ago
  > If anything - I think this pushes out who's buying a "real" McMansion probably closer to the top 5%. Yeah, I think you're right. I don't think America even has a middle class any more. The insanity of the housing market has really put that in stark contrast.

yamtaddle 4y ago

> Isn't the typical McMansion people complain about $1M+? The same style problems are heavily present in houses down to the high-$300k range around here. Straight-up visual gibberish, and not in the name of some kind of practical improvements as a trade-off—the contrary, if anything. Best I can tell, this has happened because complex façades and rooflines make a house look bigger. I've done a lot of house shopping over the years, and find that if I apply a McMansion-style-tuned eye to classically-styled houses, my guesstimate of square footage is consistently something like 30-40% low. Houses with a balanced and regular appearance and without a bunch of shit jutting out everywhere for no reason look smaller—by a lot—than a same-size McMansion.

steveBK123 4y ago

I do think it is very much a classism thing. Plant of "McMansion style" homes that Architectural Digest type snobs punch down on that are not $1M. Remember vast areas of this country have very cheap land. The demographics of people who enjoy writings like McMansion Hell skew much richer than the people living in that style of home. A McMansion style home in the burbs can cost about the same as a mediocre 1-2 bed / 1.5 bath in NYC.