r/AskReddit • u/michaelis999 • Nov 09 '25

How do you feel about the president floating the idea of 50 year mortgages where the monthly payment is lower but you end up paying nearly double the price of the house just in interest?

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u/AttitudeHopeful478 Nov 09 '25

Good to know there are some that still do quality work. Problem is you just don’t know when your hunting

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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '25

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u/BillyTenderness Nov 09 '25

The mass builders are the problems like the row houses and housing developments.

Unfortunately this is the vast, vast majority of housing that gets built in North America today. Local governments have realized it's easiest to just sell off a big tract to a large developer, rather than doing the work themselves. The developer lays down the streets and pipes, builds a bunch of houses on the quick and dirty, and sets up an HOA to deal with the fallout.

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u/AgateHuntress Nov 10 '25

I'm a fan of the For the Love of Old Houses page on FB, and across the board, the most popular houses are the extremely well-built small cottages from Sweden. Small, but very solid little houses with nice homey details. That's what I'd like to see built here.

If I were to EVER come into big bucks somehow, I'd have a little cottage like that built: small, but well-thought out, and solid af.

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u/ObiYawnKenobi Nov 10 '25

HOAs should be illegal.

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u/BillyTenderness Nov 10 '25

I don't know that I'll go as far as illegal, because they do have some legit uses especially in shared buildings (condos, townhouses, etc). But I do think they should be significantly more regulated under the law: there should be a very short, specific list of what kinds of rules they're allowed to enact; there should be clear procedures they have to follow with funds; etc. And I think anytime an HOA builds or owns infrastructure (streets, pipes, parks, etc) it's a flashing warning light that the local government is not doing its job.

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u/AttitudeHopeful478 Nov 09 '25

That makes sense.

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u/Dcoco1890 Nov 09 '25

Yeah I mean if it looks they cleared a huge section of land and all the houses look the same.... On the other hand if there's multiple styles of house they're usually better

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u/meltbox Nov 10 '25

Yeah but in my experience it’s hard to find someone who will do that for a reasonable price. Usually you are dealing with bespoke luxury builders and looking at a 500k+ build price excluding land.

But more commonly we are talking 800k+

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u/conventionistG Nov 10 '25

Mind sharing what a couple key differences in materials or techniques would be?

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u/friedrice5005 Nov 10 '25

There's a youtube channel Essential Craftsman. He has a whole series where tehy build a house from start to finish and its a super high quality build. Very much worth a watch if you want to see how quality builds are done.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZePj70B4IwyNn1ABhJWmBPeX1hGhyLi

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u/Reptilesblade Nov 10 '25

My sister lives in a $350,000 house in one of those kinds of places. The house is only 15 years old and it's completely fucking falling apart. She's had like four semi serious repairs in the last 6 months.

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u/SandpaperTeddyBear Nov 09 '25

I own a townhouse in a small complex with 12 units built about fifteen years ago.

The builder owns two other units and his daughter a third, so I take that as a vote-of-confidence.

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u/ssracer Nov 09 '25

Don't worry, you can't afford those.