New and larger homes in old neighborhoods inside the beltway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think anyone is upset that tear downs happen. It's the cookie cutter aspect. If everyone was building a unique, well thought out custom home people would not be upset.

But oddly "custom" homes all look awful and the same? I don't have money to build a custom home so maybe someone can explain it to me.

Take some of the custom homes in 22207. People spend so much money building a custom home yet it still looks like a cookie cutter home. Maybe they are using the builder to design and not architects? It is like they are too scared to fully commit to modern so they end up with a hodge podge.

You also often end up with homes awkwardly situated on the lot, no curb appeal whatsoever.

Yes I'm jealous of the size, but if I had that much money maybe I would build a large Victorian with a wrap around porch, turret, cute well thought out garden, or something like that.

And all those post WWII ramblers and ranches were not cookie cutter

Most of the Arlington homes built from the 30s through the mid-50s were colonials. The 50s-era colonials were more bare bones than the fancier and bigger 1930s-era colonials.

There are very few areas with cute original homes in NOVA, mostly around Alexandria and a little bit around Falls Church and in more rural like areas with very large lots where a cute small farmhouse may look very appealing with the woodsy and rolling hills terrain. Arlington unfortunately has mostly ugly and somewhat utilitarian construction despite its location. Woodsy hilly parts of it sometimes make up for ugly construction, plus people remodeling and rebuilding.

I'll have to correct you. Throughout North Arlington there are a large number of original 1930s-era colonials, tudor revivals, etc., in Lyon Village, Lyon Park, Ashton Heights, Lacey Woods, Tara, Country Club Hills, Donaldson Run, Waycroft Woodlawn, etc. In South Arlington, there is Arlington Ridge. These are all charming neighborhoods. Historic Maywood has original wood-framed construction from the 1910s and 20s. These isn't a whole lot of this type of construction in Falls Church, where it is more scattered and not concentrated in entire neighborhoods.

And they’re all selling as teardowns for the land

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have friends in 6K sq ft new builds/expansions and agree that they feel kind of cavernous inside because not many families with little kids are splashing out on perfect interior design and furnishing (esp. if the house was a financial reach already). Have the 'surprised' people driven through Vienna recently? Eventually every old house in these zip codes will be replaced, and developers are incentivized to build the largest possible house on the lot. We lived in a little brick rambler in Falls Church when we first came to the area and it had not been well-maintained; even if we could live with the basic footprint and just wanted to make some updates, it would have been 100s of thousands just to bring electrical, plumbing, insulation, and exterior grading up to modern standards. The house also had almost no closet space, which isn't something easily remodeled when square footage is already limited.

You just made the case why those smaller, older homes are being torn down. The economics don't justify redoing those smaller houses.

Sadly true. We tried to renovate an old rambler and it was problem after problem. If it had cost us under $500K to buy we could have justified it, but at today's prices it's insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think anyone is upset that tear downs happen. It's the cookie cutter aspect. If everyone was building a unique, well thought out custom home people would not be upset.

But oddly "custom" homes all look awful and the same? I don't have money to build a custom home so maybe someone can explain it to me.

Take some of the custom homes in 22207. People spend so much money building a custom home yet it still looks like a cookie cutter home. Maybe they are using the builder to design and not architects? It is like they are too scared to fully commit to modern so they end up with a hodge podge.

You also often end up with homes awkwardly situated on the lot, no curb appeal whatsoever.

Yes I'm jealous of the size, but if I had that much money maybe I would build a large Victorian with a wrap around porch, turret, cute well thought out garden, or something like that.

And all those post WWII ramblers and ranches were not cookie cutter

Most of the Arlington homes built from the 30s through the mid-50s were colonials. The 50s-era colonials were more bare bones than the fancier and bigger 1930s-era colonials.

There are very few areas with cute original homes in NOVA, mostly around Alexandria and a little bit around Falls Church and in more rural like areas with very large lots where a cute small farmhouse may look very appealing with the woodsy and rolling hills terrain. Arlington unfortunately has mostly ugly and somewhat utilitarian construction despite its location. Woodsy hilly parts of it sometimes make up for ugly construction, plus people remodeling and rebuilding.

I'll have to correct you. Throughout North Arlington there are a large number of original 1930s-era colonials, tudor revivals, etc., in Lyon Village, Lyon Park, Ashton Heights, Lacey Woods, Tara, Country Club Hills, Donaldson Run, Waycroft Woodlawn, etc. In South Arlington, there is Arlington Ridge. These are all charming neighborhoods. Historic Maywood has original wood-framed construction from the 1910s and 20s. These isn't a whole lot of this type of construction in Falls Church, where it is more scattered and not concentrated in entire neighborhoods.

And they’re all selling as teardowns for the land

Tear downs are happening in all the historic DC suburbs, but less so in DC itself. Even the beautiful historic Victorian rowhouses in San Francisco are now tear downs with the new California state law that mandates denser, multistory housing in all neighborhoods near transit. Historic districts are not exempt from the new law due to the worsening housing crisis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think anyone is upset that tear downs happen. It's the cookie cutter aspect. If everyone was building a unique, well thought out custom home people would not be upset.

But oddly "custom" homes all look awful and the same? I don't have money to build a custom home so maybe someone can explain it to me.

Take some of the custom homes in 22207. People spend so much money building a custom home yet it still looks like a cookie cutter home. Maybe they are using the builder to design and not architects? It is like they are too scared to fully commit to modern so they end up with a hodge podge.

You also often end up with homes awkwardly situated on the lot, no curb appeal whatsoever.

Yes I'm jealous of the size, but if I had that much money maybe I would build a large Victorian with a wrap around porch, turret, cute well thought out garden, or something like that.

And all those post WWII ramblers and ranches were not cookie cutter

Most of the Arlington homes built from the 30s through the mid-50s were colonials. The 50s-era colonials were more bare bones than the fancier and bigger 1930s-era colonials.

There are very few areas with cute original homes in NOVA, mostly around Alexandria and a little bit around Falls Church and in more rural like areas with very large lots where a cute small farmhouse may look very appealing with the woodsy and rolling hills terrain. Arlington unfortunately has mostly ugly and somewhat utilitarian construction despite its location. Woodsy hilly parts of it sometimes make up for ugly construction, plus people remodeling and rebuilding.

I'll have to correct you. Throughout North Arlington there are a large number of original 1930s-era colonials, tudor revivals, etc., in Lyon Village, Lyon Park, Ashton Heights, Lacey Woods, Tara, Country Club Hills, Donaldson Run, Waycroft Woodlawn, etc. In South Arlington, there is Arlington Ridge. These are all charming neighborhoods. Historic Maywood has original wood-framed construction from the 1910s and 20s. These isn't a whole lot of this type of construction in Falls Church, where it is more scattered and not concentrated in entire neighborhoods.

And they’re all selling as teardowns for the land

Tear downs are happening in all the historic DC suburbs, but less so in DC itself. Even the beautiful historic Victorian rowhouses in San Francisco are now tear downs with the new California state law that mandates denser, multistory housing in all neighborhoods near transit. Historic districts are not exempt from the new law due to the worsening housing crisis.

Historic properties are not entirely torn down, they have to preserve their facade, which makes it more complicated and expensive. There is no way they are tearing down victorian homes facades in SF in protected areas, I call BS.