Landfills and old factories

From Reuters:

New trend in U.S. housing: the incredible shrinking lot
By Lisa Von Ahn

Not too many years ago, the main thoroughfare of Edgewater, New Jersey, had the feel of a back road meandering through landfills and old factories.

These days, it is a jumble of new apartment blocks, condominiums and shopping centers after developers discovered its priceless view of the Hudson River and New York City.

But Edgewater’s construction boom also highlights a trend in U.S. housing: the incredible shrinking lot. Where once there was a single family home with a small garden, there is now a townhouse development. So-called McMansions, whose modern walls stretch almost to the neighbor’s property line, are everywhere.

Long a staple of middle-class life, the detached single-family home with a large yard is not only becoming less affordable but also harder to find. Lot sizes are decreasing, and attached houses and condominiums are gaining ground in some hot markets.

According to U.S. Census data, the median new one-family house, a category that includes attached units, was 2,227 square feet in 2005, up 40 percent from 1976. But the median lot size has fallen 12.6 percent to 8,847 square feet.
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In her book, “The Perfect $100,000 House,” Karrie Jacobs described how an eclectic mix of styles in the Palisades Park neighborhood where she grew up had given way to “the two-family anonymous brick things that were now the norm in this part of New Jersey.”

“Not only were there no yards, there were no trees or bushes or any of that anymore, and there were no people outside,” she said in an interview. “I wonder if it was more than just a real estate issue, whether it’s more of a broader cultural issue, that people’s relationship with the outdoors in some cases is a little bit estranged.”