Slog - Comments on Our Looming Housing Crisis

Comment by Mr. Poe

Mr. Poe — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:23:54 -0800

You're being nutty.

Comment by David Sucher

David Sucher — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:26:17 -0800

You are not seriously concerned. Or are you?

Comment by Lobot

Lobot — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:27:58 -0800

Get developers to buy them, then renovate them in to apartments. You could fit several families in some of those monstrosities.

Comment by Fifty-Two-Eighty

Fifty-Two-Eighty — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:28:43 -0800

No, Poe, he's right. Once their gazillionaire owners "move on," these over-indulged dream houses typically sit vacant for decades.

Comment by LMSW

LMSW — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:31:20 -0800

first museums, with tours as at "the breakers", then pay for entrance parks such as the huntington gardens. then condo's. then maybe cool ruins. then not so cool ruins inhabited by post-apocalypse tribes of mutant zombie cannibals. Oh excuse, the filthy rich are already mutant zombie cannibals, figuratively speaking.

Comment by Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:32:39 -0800

There's been a $40 million-plus house on the market for about five or six years on the east side of the lake if I remember correctly. That's what happens. Meanwhile these crazy houses continue to suck up energy and resources because they need to be kept up in the fruitless hope that someone wants to spend all that money on it.

Comment by Cow

Cow — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:36:11 -0800

At least a couple of them can probably be the Seattle branch of kink.com (or its descendants). They're doing neat things with the old Armory in SF...

Comment by Mahtli69

Mahtli69 — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:36:17 -0800

A glut of ten-million dollar houses does not equate to a housing crisis. The price gap between a normal house and an uber-mansion is enormous, so there is quite a cushion for high-end market fluctuation.

If a $100,000 Rolls Royce suddenly started selling for $70,000, how would that affect the price of a Honda? It wouldn't.

Comment by A Non Imus

A Non Imus — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:38:22 -0800

You're starting to understand, Dan.

Only, it's not just the hideous mansions -- the $600,000 Wallingford bungalow is just as impractical and unsupported as a million-dollar home with mesozoic plants.

Local tech companies are no longer minting millionaires, and this area is in for a rude awakening.

Comment by Bigyaz

Bigyaz — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:42:59 -0800

Those with enough money simply tear down the existing house and build their own monument to themselves.

And Dan, you're showing just how out of touch you are if you've never heard of Myhrvold.

Comment by Mr. Poe

Mr. Poe — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:43:07 -0800

If you think these houses are a problem, ELF 'em. All of 'em. There. Solved.

Comment by PA Native

PA Native — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:43:38 -0800

The aliens.

Comment by Fifty-Two-Eighty

Fifty-Two-Eighty — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:46:45 -0800

The weird, sorta flying saucer house used in Woody Allen's "Sleeper" is in the foothills near here, and just sold after 30 years of sitting empty. The windows were all broken, the carpets and wood in the house were all rotted, the electrical system was totally worthless, and there were wild birds and animals living in it. Something to look forward to.

Comment by crazycatguy

crazycatguy — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:48:22 -0800

And last night I stayed awake wondering how many times the word "uh" is said in one day.

Comment by PopTart

PopTart — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:50:18 -0800

I don't get the concern here. Rich people have built huge mansions throughout history. In NY they were converted to multi-unit housing, or museums, or libraries, or stores for fancy designers. In vacation spots they were turned into hotels, or tourist attractions. In wine country, a few became wineries. And, in lots of places (like Philadelphia) the next generations of the family are still living in the houses.

Comment by Abby

Abby — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:55:05 -0800

@13: they sold the Sleeper house? Awesome! I remember driving past it on a semi-regular basis, and remarking every time that it looked cool.

Comment by chris

chris — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:56:13 -0800

in the 70s the mansions around volunteer park became hippy flophouses.

Comment by boxofbirds

boxofbirds — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:59:26 -0800

Probably the same thing that happened to the mansions on Capitol Hill in the mid 20th century. They become run-down and super cheap, until the next boom cycle when they will become over-valued/re-valued.

Comment by Fifty-Two-Eighty

Fifty-Two-Eighty — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:59:47 -0800

Yeah, Abby. Finally. Forget what the sale price was, but it was peanuts compared to what it's gonna cost to get it liveable again.

Comment by Coup de Taste

Coup de Taste — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:01:31 -0800

What will happen to these mansions? Same thing that happened to the ridiculous homes built by previous rich eccentrics: The building becomes a white elephant, the value of the place is reduced to the land value, and the next rich eccentric comes along to bulldoze the previous monstrosity to build their monstrosity.

p.s. Is Paul Allen dead yet? If not, why?

Comment by Providence

Providence — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:02:42 -0800

Once they reach the White Elephant stage, these mansions will either

a) be burnt to the ground for the insurance
b) be broken up into condos
c) be turned into museums like the gilded-age "summer cottages" in Newport RI.

At least that's been the experience with rich people's real estate cast offs in my corner of the country. The arson solution is the most common, btw. Insurance fraud is the RI state sport.

Comment by Fifty-Two-Eighty

Fifty-Two-Eighty — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:08:55 -0800

Hey, Providence: My mom met Buddy Cianci on Wednesday at the opening of some Broadway-type show there. Said he pulled up in a limo with a "leggy blonde" on his arm. It's good to see that some things never change.

Comment by freshnycman

freshnycman — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:15:48 -0800

@5 wins!

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:26:45 -0800

Actually, @11 wins.

Hey, who forgot to close the tags on this article - it's making all of SLOG look teeny tiny ....

Comment by inkweary

inkweary — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:44:26 -0800

BTW: all "Mesozoic plants" means is ferns, monkey puzzle trees and cycads, all of which are common all over Seattle. They actually make for a very low maintenance garden, which in this area would require little watering.

Comment by K

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:52:56 -0800

1-800-ELF-PYRO

Comment by Bellevue Ave

Bellevue Ave — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:07:20 -0800

Ferns are neato.

Comment by Ries Niemi

Ries Niemi — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:35:33 -0800

Although Myrvold's house may be wacky (and is supposedly the inspiration for the house in Cryptonomicon by Neal Stepehenson, the one with the crashed 747 in pieces hanging from the ceiling)
the vast majority of the tech billionaires are actually pretty conservative in their tastes.
Most of their houses will be readily accepted by your garden variety rich person, so you dont have to worry they will become white elephants on the real estate market.
In fact, most anybody who makes a bunch of money is usually pretty conservative in their tastes- its usually the second generations, the ones who didnt have to earn it, who squander it on follies.
I used to work in the houses of rich movies stars and rock stars in LA, and I was always amazed at how pedestrian and conservative they were- guys from Saturday Night Live make money, and they buy Rembrandts.

Comment by Dougsf

Dougsf — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:38:28 -0800

#17 - same here in San Francisco. In the 70's huge Victorians stayed vacant, became squats, or were divided up into studio apartments. That said, it's the upper-middle class I think that sits more precariously on the fence of wealthy security - there's always going to be a top .5% that goes unaffected by economic downturn.

Comment by michael strangeways

michael strangeways — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:41:43 -0800

uh, that would be post-Rapture so why worry about it?

Comment by Greg

Greg — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:07:23 -0800

The guy may have too much money, but non-periodic tilings are teh awesome.

Comment by PopTart

PopTart — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:53:52 -0800

There's always the wartime uses as well, in case an invading army descends on us. Or the urban wars happen. Or, like in the Day of the Triffids, "comets" blind almost everybody and giant walking plants kill off a huge number of people, then all the survivors can band together in the mansions and rebuild society while fighting off the mutant plants.

Comment by Marit

Marit — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:50:05 -0800

Dan honey, all of us non-billionaire boomers will be living in them, only they will be divided by sheets and blankets like in Dr Zhivago. We will sneak out at night to steal shingles from the mansion next door to heat our hands over. We will be shot if we are caught.

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:09:25 -0800

I love all you post-apocalyptic types. Lake Washington houses are not going to be divided up into squats and flophouses; they're going to continue to be owned by very rich people. And freak houses like Myhrvold's are going to get torn down, gardens ripped out, and redone from scratch. That's what rich people do. There are no abandoned mansions on Mercer Island waterfront.

Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball

Jubilation T. Cornball — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:46:46 -0800

If I came into that kind of money, I'd be hauling ass down the Frank Lloyd Wright archives in Arizona and hiring them to build me Fallingwater over the Duwamish. Or something.

But it would definitely be Frank Lloyd Wright.

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:54:36 -0800

If I came into that kind of money, I'd a 25,000 square foot house where one half looked like The White House and the other half looked like a Tuscan villa, and then I'd build a wall covered with exact replicas of famous paintings by Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, etc., with numerous openings through which you could see the house and also many, many twice-life-size replicas of famous statues (David, Venus de Milo, etc.), only painted to look like real people.

Just to piss the neighbors off.

Comment by MarkyMark

MarkyMark — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:13:34 -0800

Chinese multi-millionaires, and you'll be grateful to be employed by them as servants, because the alternative...

Comment by Sleeper House

Sleeper House — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:23:37 -0800

I thought the Sleeper house was in Denver?

Comment by erika

erika — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:45:21 -0800

No no no... the owners will obviously leave behind a trust fund for the upkeep of the house while it sits empty, ready and waiting for the day when they are thawed out of their cryogenic freeze.

I just found out my uncle wants to have his head frozen, and he's not even rich. Seriously.

Comment by RainMan

RainMan — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:30:16 -0800

The baby boomers will start dying off by then. These mansions will then be turned into funeral homes.

Comment by PopTart

PopTart — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:51:43 -0800

@38 In the foothills just outside Denver.

@34 You are NO FUN. I can be post-apocalyptic if I want to. I just can't decide whether my post-apocalyptic wardrobe is going to be more Mad Max or medieval.

Comment by CP

CP — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:04:41 -0800

I vote for "our new Chinese masters."

But, failing that,

President M.C. Hammer? After his comeback, retirement, and move into national politics, of course.

Comment by Greg

Greg — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:05:02 -0800

@41: I'm going for an Imperial-style tunic and toga combo, myself.

Comment by Ivan

Ivan — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:36:16 -0800

I predict that a sex advice columnist who got rich syndicating his column will accidentally place the winning bid for Myhrvold's place on ebay. He'll then hold elaborate dinner parties there, until one day, some asshole from the local newspaper will crash the party and find a repeating pattern in the aperiodic tilings. But it will turn out just to be a drug-induced hallucination, so it'll all be ok.

Comment by Victor

Victor — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:36:00 -0800

Two or three decades ago, millionaires were very rare, but now they are everywhere. So in two or three decades, when the current millionaires and billionaires die off, there will be even more billionaires and trillionaires to buy such mansions and build more, until the earth is totally destroyed by human beings.