What is Real Estate

Writen by Richard Carter

In the last few years, there's been a noticeable migration by homebuilders and developers to rapidly build-out our communities with more and more town homes and condominiums. In many cities, this trend has been on a massive scale. The reasons for this shift are obvious:

- To meet the needs for less expensive housing,

- To provide builders with a way to provide less expensive construction,

- To allow cities to better meet their required housing availabilities and allocations.

Part of what's fueling this new development is the costs and economics of construction. Being able to put many, more sellable houses on a small 'footprint' of land can greatly affect costs. In addition, the perceived price-points entry-level, first-time purchasers will be able to pay, also plays a very large part in deciding what models and types of dwellings builders choose to build. However, are those the only considerations that should be taken into account?

One of the most important issues of these styles of homes, and the one that is most likely to be overlooked, is the fact that town home and condominium living are considered to be 'high-density' living.

High-density living is commonly associated with apartment living. Put another way, it is another case of having a large number of people living in a smaller, more contained space. It is also known by such terms or phrases as multi-family housing, or close-proximity housing.

However you label it, it's always a case of putting a lot of people in a small area. When that happens, all the effects of each and every one of those people are more easily sensed by the others in that environment. In other words, your quality of living has just taken a comparative 'hit' before you even move in!

Now, this 'feature' – the social effects of high-density housing – is not new. As the attractive internal attributes of your individual space – the shiny fixtures and the new crystal-clear glass and the polished woodwork – become dull, fogged, and permanently nicked and scarred with time, the effects of how we live with each other will continue to grow in importance, and more importantly, how it influences our individual lives.

In the most recent and ubiquitous growth or these revived common-interest ownership homes, I seriously question whether many developers and city planners have taken into account the already existing and known problems that accompany high-density living. Having lived in such forms of accommodations decades ago and learning the lessons then, I am still seeing a number of occasions where the newly finished town home and condominium communities have not changed or improved in how they will resolve those issues of high-density living.

This issue is, in fact, an age-old issue. It is one we have faced for decades in the form of urban crowding, blighted neighborhoods, and the more crime-prone areas of our inner cities. From those historic lessons learned, we have already become knowledgeable that the more space a person or a family has in their living arrangements, the more privacy they can claim. The more privacy they can reserve, the more enjoyable their environment. Moreover, the more enjoyable their environment, the more value that property has become; especially over time, as that property and the neighborhood and community around it age.

Inversely, we have also discovered that high-density housing, without certain and specific management requirements and services, can create terrible results in housing alternatives. Questions as to:

- How much play or recreational space should be allotted for children? Should it be on a child-density basis, or a limited basis?

- What is provided for each age bracket of child?

- How are pet stations planned for; or are they?

- How are we dealing with being able to discover covert activities (such as meth-amphetamine making) BEFORE they ruin a building?

- How is safety addressed on internal (and therefore private) roads and streets?

- Are auxiliary owner parking areas provided (to allow for trailers, boats, snowmobiles, and the like); and how will they be enclosed so as to not detract from the appearance of the property, or the community?

With the growing numbers of these town home and condominium communities, what steps are being taken to make sure the needed care, management, ownership knowledge and community services are being provided for? Or, is it a matter of all these newly constructed projects simply sprouting up like weeds in a prairie field, with only the focus on marketing, sales, and taxation being considered important or worthwhile?

Specifically, are recreational facilities being planned and built in accompaniment to the homes? Are the needed schools being sponsored and built to keep up with the accelerated population that high-density brings with it? Who's going to keep peace in these condensed and tightly packed communities? And, by what specific rules? And what is to be considered timely enforcement? Most importantly, do the new homeowners know about all this BEFORE they spend their hard-earned money on a down payment?

It goes without saying, many town home and/or condominium complexes (or associations, as they are known), function quite well. They are marvelously managed, the residents understand the form of ownership and the lifestyle, and the price-points of the properties dictate well-educated, refined populations who appreciate the finer things in life. More so than not, these are complexes of the upper price-points, populated by those of accomplishment, and in urban environments. That said, there are a great many common-interest ownership properties that aren't doing so well; and the residents are paying the bill in the form of disruptive neighborhoods, unkempt properties, and non-responsive management agents and city officials. It is this portion of the town home and condominium market that is growing, and is of mounting importance to every municipality that has such within its city limits. For not only do the residents of these complexes face unnecessary and very negative effects of the inherent problems, but those cities, townships and even counties will be seeing increased costs due to the unaddressed issues which, with time, will be sure to manifest themselves in various social issues and higher costs. These issues are already showing up in the form of increased costs in law enforcement, non-compliant and non-complimentary zoning issues, and inadequate day-to-day services due the shear growth in numbers of citizenry due to the nature of high-density housing.

I strongly believe there is a second shoe ready to fall with regard to a number of these most recent and rapidly growing complexes. In those municipalities that have allowed the rabbit-like growth of town home and condominium construction within their communities, I fear that what originally looked like reasonable and acceptable housing development, will in experience, become the lesser-attractive parts of their communities; and therein, the more expensive to administrate. To wit, we are now beginning to see a few municipalities that are beginning to limit or redefine the conditions under which such construction can proceed.

For some of us, we have already had the opportunity to see what managed high-density housing can develop into. Those lessons where learned in places like Cabrini Green, Dearborn Homes, and other urban high-density, irresponsibly managed, yet well-intended experiences.

Don't think it can happen today? It already is in some places.

We can do better.

That is the goal we should have. We truly need to bring our experience and that gained knowledge forward; incorporating it into these new developments, as compared to simply allowing them to flourish with limit goals intended. Please join us in this responsibility to our communities, to ourselves.

Richard Carter is the author of Town Homes and Condominiums: Little Known Facts and Hidden Traps, a resource designed to enlighten and empower anyone who lives in – or is planning to live in – a town home or condominium community. For more information and to participate in a discussion forum, visit Mr. Carter's website at: http://www.thcbook.com