Millennials are buying fixer-uppers because it's the only way to afford a home | Hacker News Reader

Millennials are buying fixer-uppers because it's the only way to afford a home

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12 pointspaulpauper8 comments

There's more here than just that it's what people can afford. There's a mystique to remaking an old house and keeping/improving the character that's there. You're able to have something with character but also something that is your own. On top of that, networks like HGTV glamorize the process and make it seem doable. But because of HGTV, the updates to the older houses are not small. Generally, they're updating the kitchen or other large projects, partially because of the old owners neglect or because of changing tastes.

I've found the shows on HGTV to be so universally shallow that I think their role is to entirely anchor artificially inflated costs in the citizenry minds so that any simple bathroom reno reflexively needs a $25k budget at minimum.

Surely millenials also like to customize their houses, was that controlled for? Wouldn't they be rebuilding their all-ok houses anyways? A lot of people around me are reconstructing every decade simply because they are tired of the looks.

I myself am looking for places that need to be redone as I dislike the current trends - e.g. the epidemic of showers replacing bathtubs, not building additional bathrooms next to master bedrooms, merging kitchens and dining rooms with living rooms etc...

I’m a millennial and I purchased an old 1880s property that required work because it had character and wasn’t built like shit. I see all the new stuff as it’s constructed and it’s plywood everywhere and the design sense is best described as either faux-wealthy or vague-ikea-modern.

I can put new appliances in my old house. I can’t make the bones of it better without demolishing it.

I grew up in a suburb that had a mix of old properties and new subdivisions full of McMansions. My friend’s McMansion cracked every single window as it settled and a giant crack appeared from floor to roof as the house essentially was splitting. What an ugly monstrosity. New construction != good construction.

As someone unfortunately in the market for an old (60-80 years old) SFH due to the location I'm in, I'd have to strongly disagree.

First, all houses settle and a good rule of thumb is if it's not a horizontal crack, you're probably fine. The giant crack does sound worrying but that's not your typical modern home especially if you went with a good builder. Your house probably has loads of cracks that were sealed with epoxy and covered up (not a bad thing but it's not like your house is pristine).

The "bones" of an old home isn't going to be better either. For instance, if you have a basement, you can't ever make it into a proper livable area due to the lack of moisture proofing. A rule of thumb is basements older than 1990s are probably not worth renovating into a living quarter due to this issue. And your house probably has had countless termite treatments which overall weakens the "bones" of your house.

And don't get me started on asbestos, tube and knob wiring, or lead paint.

> tube and knob wiring

I was actually reading that properly done tube and knob wiring isn't much more dangerous than the current standard. The problem was that it had to be exposed to dissipate heat, which led to a lot of people working on their own electricity. Improperly done tube and knob wiring is drastically less safe than current standards when done wrong.

Fwiw, I live in a place that had tube and knob on the outdoor porch, and I hated it. Scared the shit out of me that it would get wet and start a fire, but it wasn't my house and I have no idea if tube and knob wiring is safe to get wet.

Naive question: what's wrong with plywood? I know it's not very attractive compared to old beams that can be exposed, but in terms of structure I had the impression that it was basically fairly strong in the dimensions that it's designed to be strong. (Not that it's strong enough to compensate for a badly built foundation, but nothing is.)

Plywood is often better in every conceivable way than pure wood, and can be more expensive as well. GP is perhaps confusing it with particle board maybe? I don’t know they’re talking about. There is “crappy” plywood too, sure, but that used for framing & structure.

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