Bigger is better. It has been America’s mantra for a century. As Atlantic Magazine writer Joe Pinsker explains:
“America is a place defined by size. Both domestically and internationally, it is notorious for its size of vehicles, its parts, its defense budget, and its housing. ”
— Joe Pinsker, The Atlantic, 2019
“And the house…” Over the years, larger homes have been built in Talbot Park, Seaview, Emerald Hills, and other large neighborhoods. But now the trend is in full swing, spreading to more modest neighborhoods closer to downtown. Builders and homeowners are oversizing new homes.
The newest highlight is this new home on Edmonds’ iconic Sunset Avenue. A house with concrete slab walls, steel beams, and nooks and crannies in the space allowed. Built in 1910, the original home sits on a rare 12,000-square-foot waterfront lot, with a first-floor footprint taking up just over 10% of his lot.
A new home can cover up to 4,200 square feet on 35% of the lot, or the ground floor alone, as city ordinances allow. Everyone walking through the sunset stops and geeks. Art Runkel told me: “Look at everything else.”
Paul Nelson had a unique point of view. Angel Dorr was nervous. That may be so, but the new home ticks all the boxes on the city’s building code list.
Art Runkel admitted, “It’s their property, so I have nothing to say about it.”
No, we have no say. City of Edmonds senior his planner Brad Shipley said: People don’t like how big it is, but because of the value of the land here, it needs to be built to the maximum for developers to make a profit. ’ And they.
Sunset House meets city height standards and is no taller than 25 feet. It meets the residential footprint allowed on land of that size. This is four times the size of the old house. In addition, the city does not have building design standards for single-family homes. “Single-family developments are not subject to design review,” Shipley said, adding, “The home met all the necessary development criteria … no specific architectural style is required.”
America has supersized its homes for a century. In the 1920s, the average size of a U.S. home was just over 1,000 square feet for her. But between the 1960s and today, the average size of a home has nearly doubled.
Average US home size:
1960: 1,289 square feet
2000: 2,266
2010: 2,392
2020: 2,491
Neighborhoods throughout Edmonds are feeling the impact. An old small house near downtown has been demolished. Newer and larger homes are being built to setbacks on lot lines. On small parcels, it’s only 5 feet from your neighbor’s property line.
The most visible mega-home may be this five-bedroom, five-bathroom home on the west side of 9th Avenue South. Built five years ago on half an acre, the home is 8,000 square feet and is valued at $5 million. However, over the years, other subdivisions of the city have been filled with housing along the property lines.
Along Edmonds Way, builders have built three new homes on a sprawling lot with only one old bungalow. Each home here meets city standards for an individual he 6,000-square-foot lot. The old home and land sold for just over $1 million in 2016. The three new homes are listed at over $1 million each.
Edmonds has been a hot residential market for years. Our current real estate chill may put a pause on super-sized home construction. But it’s just a pause. Higher land prices and higher material costs are a simple formula for contractors to turn a profit. “Getting the most out of a building is becoming more and more popular,” said Brad Shipley, senior planner at Edmonds.
“Maximize” affects the rest of the neighborhood. The city reviews all plans, but Shipley warns that for single-family homes, “there are no building codes, so city planners can’t say they’re out of neighborhood size.”
— Bob Tronsen