Place

Property Values

Mark Frauenfelder at boingboing writes of the McMansionization of suburbia.

Heart rending photos of cute little houses being demolished and replaced with generic monster boxes. What kind of creep enjoys living in these giant houses? I sure don't want to know them. I didn't really mean this. I know a lot of very nice people who live in McMansions. I was upset when I saw this site because someone built a McMansion next door to us and it ruined our light and our view. It was like living in a cave. I used to love our house. But we sold it and moved. I guess I'm just more upset about the people who build these places with no thought to esthetics, quality, or the environment around them, and then sell them as spec houses. Link [via Boing Boing]

The land that house sits on is worth more than the improvements. Most likely the zoning code in that town does not permit construction of multiple family residences or a multiple use buildings on that site, so in order to realize a profit on the sale, the developer builds to the set-backs. There may not be a height limit on the structure, but there almost certainly is a limit to the number of floors. In order to reduce his costs, the developer will offer buyers a choice of three to six plans, which they can modify to any extent that will not require him to submit the changes to the planning board. The buyers want to get as much stuff for their dollar as they can, so for $800,000 the house had better be huge. Can they afford $800,000? Sure! They just sold their apartment in Georgetown, and are leveraging the purchase with a 5% down payment on a 30-year mortgage with a fixed 6.019% APR.

Would it have been better for the buyers to buy the lot and cut out the developing middleman? Perhaps, but would they be able to get a loan to do so?

4:25:25 PM # Google It!
categories: Place

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points

I like to have options about how I travel. I would like to choose between my feet, my car, the bus, the train, a boat, a plane. For some destinations, some of those options are not available, or are inconvenient enough that they are eliminated from consideration.

In the pseudo-math of economics, that's Inconvenience = time + price.

Metro-North Railroad consolidated railroads in the New York metropolitan area under a semi-public authority. The roads served mainly to move goods to and from New York City, and still do. There are two problems with the system. One is obvious from the map: The roads only connect in the city. The other problem is with the schedule.

Suppose that you live in Danbury, Connecticut. There's a station right there in town, so you may even be able to walk to it. But you have to transfer at Stamford. If you can't walk to it, it's more convenient to drive from Danbury to Southeast, and take the train from there. You'll even to get to the office on time.

point-to-point	time	price
Danbury to Grand Central	122 minutes	$17
Danbury to Southeast	21 minutes	fuel for 13.1 miles, and parking fees
Southeast to Grand Central	88 minutes	$16
Danbury to Grand Central	92 minutes	fuel for 64.8 miles, and parking fees

12:24:38 PM # Google It!
categories: Place

Are Simulations Like Reality?

When I was at Hampden-Sydney College, I played SimCity a lot. That version is now online, with instructions. When I played the game, I was never able to address traffic problems. Traffic problems work like this:

1. build factory
2. build houses
3. build transit
4. build roads
5. more houses and factories
6. traffic
7. more roads
8. traffic
9. more transit
10. traffic
11. lose election

You see the problem? Traffic problems lead to lost elections. And no mayor wants that. And there are always traffic problems.

A sixth-grade class in Dobbs Ferry is investigating improvement options for the Tappan Zee Bridge, and will be presenting their findings to their parents. The Thruway Authority and Metro-North Railroad have 15 scenarios under consideration. I think there are several involving mass transit that could be discarded immediately — those with trains only to New York City — because they fill no gaps in the existing infrastructure. And the options that merely increase existing capacity are bandages; traffic, like gases, fills all available space. Long-term reductions in congestion are caused by reducing the number of cars on the road; that is, by reducing the demand for the road.

Yet automobiles have a significant advantage over mass transit: I can go where I want.

9:39:59 AM # Google It!
categories: Place