Why so many carports?

[Anonymous]

Curious why so many mid century homes in this area (Fairfax county, but have seen them in Arlington and Alexandria too) have carports? It's not really that expensive to convert to garage and would add a lot of house value, so why do the carports remain? Would property taxes go up if a garage was added? Is there something else I'm overlooking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious why so many mid century homes in this area (Fairfax county, but have seen them in Arlington and Alexandria too) have carports? It's not really that expensive to convert to garage and would add a lot of house value, so why do the carports remain? Would property taxes go up if a garage was added? Is there something else I'm overlooking?

But its their cost... a lot of these older homes are owned by older folks who can't afford it.
Or don't mind their carport.

[Anonymous]

So seriously that's it? I would think that if they took out HELOCs they would get back every penny by adding a garage. So many houses weren't even coming up on my searches because I had garage checked and they only had carports.

[Anonymous]

If you think it is that easy to convert a carport to a garage, you should expand your search to include homes with carports.

I have no idea whether it is easy or cheap to convert a carport around here, but I also don't know how much value would be added by the conversion either. With the mild weather around here, garages and carports were not on our list of must haves when searching for a home.

[Anonymous]

I've never lived in a house with a garage so I don't see it as a necessity worth spending money on. Plus I'd be worried about fumes. Can't they get into your house?

What's a carport, a little shelter thing?

[Anonymous]

OP here- I'm surprised by these responses. Really no garages? It's actually our #1 criteria. My husband is a bicyclist and we have lots of bicycles. A garage would be a heaven send. We also have a convertible.

I'm from an area without basements and most homes had 3 garages and cars never sat out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you think it is that easy to convert a carport to a garage, you should expand your search to include homes with carports.

I have no idea whether it is easy or cheap to convert a carport around here, but I also don't know how much value would be added by the conversion either. With the mild weather around here, garages and carports were not on our list of must haves when searching for a home.

Seriously, the idea that people would get back 110% of their money by converting a carport seems off to me, but if you are convinced otherwise then you should be looking at those houses.

[Anonymous]

I used to look down on houses that didn't have a garage until I moved into my Silver Spring brick rambler that doesn't even have a driveway.

We're accepting donations to upgrade our homes' parking situations, though we'd probably just blow it on food and utilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- I'm surprised by these responses. Really no garages? It's actually our #1 criteria. My husband is a bicyclist and we have lots of bicycles. A garage would be a heaven send. We also have a convertible.

I'm from an area without basements and most homes had 3 garages and cars never sat out.

Welcome to the DC area. When many of these homes were built, people lived differently. Have you realized that closets are different as well? Possibly no bath on the main level. I know CRAZY! What were they thinking in 1937 when they built that colonial?

If a 3 car garage is the most important criteria - you may want to check out zip code: 20147

[Anonymous]

I've never really considered a garage a necessity, because my car's always been parked outside since high school. (3rd car - 2 car garage.) Our weather isn't so extreme that you're constantly ice-scraping anyway, and a garage means you have to shovel the ENTIRE driveway vs. the patch behind your parked car.

I didn't look at any homes with carports, because I was mostly looking at homes built before 1950.

A driveway was a must for this house, though, and reserved parking spots were a must for my last one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So seriously that's it? I would think that if they took out HELOCs they would get back every penny by adding a garage. So many houses weren't even coming up on my searches because I had garage checked and they only had carports.

I'm confused. If you think it's so cheap and such a good investment to add a garage, why are you excluding non-garage houses from your search? That makes zero sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So seriously that's it? I would think that if they took out HELOCs they would get back every penny by adding a garage. So many houses weren't even coming up on my searches because I had garage checked and they only had carports.

I'm confused. If you think it's so cheap and such a good investment to add a garage, why are you excluding non-garage houses from your search? That makes zero sense.

I was really asking because I wanted to know if there was anything preventing people from switching carport to garage. Like a city code or property taxes increasing a lot.

[Anonymous]

We had a two car garage growing up and if there was typically even one car in it it was a miracle. Got filled up with other crap that accumulates over 30+ years.

Our house (and many house in Arlington) has neither a carport nor a garage. Driveway and street suit us fine.

[Anonymous]

O are you from the Midwest or another very snowy area? I have an ex from Ohio who was obsessed with having garage parking

[Anonymous]

OP here- I'm from the south where there are no basements, so garages were all you had. I currently have a condo and our lack of garage is the main reason we're selling. We have absolutely no where to store our stuff and bicycles.