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Much of the US South doesn’t have basements. Maryland is an outlier for climate (colder winters) and demographic (wealthier) reasons. (Separately, this is one

Much of the US South doesn’t have basements. Maryland is an outlier for climate (colder winters) and demographic (wealthier) reasons. (Separately, this is one of the great reasons to prefer multi-family constructions, and why US building trends have slowly realigned towards them: you only have to build one basement and electrical/HVAC system for 20 families.)

jcranmer 3y ago
> Much of the US South doesn’t have basements. Maryland is an outlier for climate (colder winters) and demographic (wealthier) reasons. The Midwest, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and most of the West have as cold or colder winters than Maryland. Indeed, it's largely only the Pacific coast and South/Southwest that don't have colder winters. Hard to call Maryland an outlier when like half the country lives in places that get that cold or colder!
- parpfish 3y ago
  I think they meant that they were an outlier from the rest of the south
- woodruffw 3y ago
  An outlier versus the South, not the rest of the US.
- Retric 3y ago
  Maryland and Kansas overlap in terms of temperature overall. Wichita Kansas is on average 5 degrees warmer in January than Frendsville MD, High 40f vs 36f vs low 25 vs 20. Kansas City in the northern bit of Kansas and only goes down to 39° / 21°. So there’s not that much of the US that’s actually colder than MD.
wizerdrobe 3y ago
What style of multifamily are you referring to here? Every townhome and apartment style I’ve ever lived in has discrete electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. I’ve only rarely seen condo styles with shared systems and those typically come with unappealing expensive management fees, insurance, and shared expense to the tune 500+ per month on top of the price for the unit itself. My father used to mantain the infrastructure for such a development and those were prices circa 2000 or so.
- woodruffw 3y ago
  I’ve seen modern townhomes and apartments in Maryland with shared electrical and HVAC; not sure about plumbing. I’ve also seen constructions in North Carolina with shared electrical and plumbing, although each unit had its own HVAC. (I don’t have a sense of expense for any of these things, but I assume they wouldn’t build them this way if there wasn’t some economic envelope that they fit into.)

jcranmer 3y ago

> Much of the US South doesn’t have basements. Maryland is an outlier for climate (colder winters) and demographic (wealthier) reasons. The Midwest, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and most of the West have as cold or colder winters than Maryland. Indeed, it's largely only the Pacific coast and South/Southwest that don't have colder winters. Hard to call Maryland an outlier when like half the country lives in places that get that cold or colder!

parpfish 3y ago
I think they meant that they were an outlier from the rest of the south
woodruffw 3y ago
An outlier versus the South, not the rest of the US.
Retric 3y ago
Maryland and Kansas overlap in terms of temperature overall. Wichita Kansas is on average 5 degrees warmer in January than Frendsville MD, High 40f vs 36f vs low 25 vs 20. Kansas City in the northern bit of Kansas and only goes down to 39° / 21°. So there’s not that much of the US that’s actually colder than MD.

wizerdrobe 3y ago

What style of multifamily are you referring to here? Every townhome and apartment style I’ve ever lived in has discrete electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. I’ve only rarely seen condo styles with shared systems and those typically come with unappealing expensive management fees, insurance, and shared expense to the tune 500+ per month on top of the price for the unit itself. My father used to mantain the infrastructure for such a development and those were prices circa 2000 or so.

woodruffw 3y ago
I’ve seen modern townhomes and apartments in Maryland with shared electrical and HVAC; not sure about plumbing. I’ve also seen constructions in North Carolina with shared electrical and plumbing, although each unit had its own HVAC. (I don’t have a sense of expense for any of these things, but I assume they wouldn’t build them this way if there wasn’t some economic envelope that they fit into.)