Mansions are taking over the suburbs.
In communities ringing the nation`s largest cities, high land prices are forcing many builders of the American dream home to eschew modest abodes in favor of castles.
”It`s a law of real estate economics: The type of usage depends on the value of the land,” said Bob Edelstein, cochairman of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California at Berkeley.
”Land is expensive today, and people aren`t building small, geeky buildings,” Edelstein said. ”They`re building mansions and palaces.”
Dozens of million-dollar homes are going up in the San Francisco suburbs of Lafayette, Redwood City and San Rafael, where simple tract homes once dominated the landscape.
The trend, which started about five years ago but has accelerated dramatically in the last two years, is being echoed from the manicured acres of southern California communities to the affluent neighborhoods of New England.
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”This the mansionization of the suburbs,” said Ken Tutunjian, sales manager of Coldwell Banker real estate for the Boston area.
The mansions, some with more than 10,000 square feet of living space, are bold, brash and expensive. They sport spacious, paneled dens and libraries and luxurious entertainment areas. Most have two-story entryways and five flowing bedrooms with as many baths; some have servants` quarters.
Builders often import fine wood and marble from around the world.
Electronic control panels automatically oversee temperature and humidity, operate sprinkler systems and adjust the temperature of swimming pools and spas.
The kitchens are larger than most condominiums and come equipped with the finest appliances that money can buy.
”It`s what I call the `I made it` house,” said Rip Miller, a sales associate for JM Tayler Realtors in Burlingame, Calif.
The construction is changing the face of traditional suburbia. Unlike estates built before World War II, which went up on large tracts of land, today`s mansions often are constructed on less than an acre.
In the Strawberry Point Spit area of Mill Valley, Calif., for example, a third of an acre goes for about $675,000.
”Any land is so costly that the builders can`t afford to build anything but really spacious, very grand houses,” said Andy Gellepis, relocation director for the Frank Howard Allen real estate firm in Mill Valley.
”It`s about the only kind of development going on.”
The homes are being built by executives and professionals who are trading up.
Others are constructed for people transferred from one high-cost housing market to another who seek to buy expensive homes to defer paying capital gains taxes.
Architect Peter Harmon said that 10 years ago most custom houses that were built ranged from about 2,400 to 2,700 square feet. Four years ago they typically were 3,200 square feet to 3,500 square feet.
”Lately, they`re all at least 4,000 or 4,500 square feet,” he said.
”The kids` bedrooms today are the size of the master bedrooms of 10 years ago,” Harmon said.
Mark Dunn, manager for relocation services for Mason-McDuffie Real Estate in Orinda, Calif., said the trend reverses ”the old real estate rule that you don`t have the highest-priced house in the neighborhood.”
In Danville, Calif., Lynn Kunkle fulfilled a lifelong dream two years ago when he moved into his hilltop brick home, which he likes to call ”Kunkle`s Castle.”
”As a kid, I always loved castles,” said Kunkle, 48, a contractor.
”When I was a college student I saw castles in England. I always wanted to build one, so I found a way and did it.”
In Northfield, Ill., massive homes recently have gone up on one-acre wooded lots that sold for up to $500,000. Some of the houses go for more than $2 million.
People also are buying two adjacent houses in Northfield, plunking down nearly $1 million, only to tear them down and put up ”really big, really nice homes,” said Mitch Wasserman, an administrator for Northfield.
The proliferation of mansions is so intense that some suburbs have created ordinances to limit their construction. Last week, Atherton, Calif., placed a temporary ban on construction in an area where large homes are being built on small lots so that town officials may review their planning codes.