3k and 5k is a massive range, grouping them together is ridiculous. Googling McMansion comes up with pics of homes all with a lot more than 3k sqft.
Try googling “McMansion size”
True. One thing that gets lost in a lot of this stuff is that, yes, the $200k household has little to complain about relative to the bottom 80% to 90%, BUT because of the erosion of social programs and overall concentration of wealth in the top 1% or, perhaps more importantly, the top 0.1%, we end up with these silly arguments around the terminology “middle class”. The middle class has always been vaguely defined, but generally speaking in contemporary usage it refers to a set of social markers (single family home ownership, access to education and health care, and basic financial security) that were the features of the “middle class” in the USA around the 1950s to the 1970s. These household wealth markers in 2021 are really only attainable by the households well above median, so the “middle” household income band doesn’t give you a “middle class” lifestyle! This should be hammered more and more in these arguments because the point shouldn’t be “oh look at this ignorant households with $200K who don’t realize how good they have it”, the point should be “oh look the top 1%+ have hijacked the hopes and dreams of millions and millions of Americans who aren’t going to make it into the top 10% of households”. Watch out for the instinctive reaction to throw punches at the $200k households, this serves the interest of billionaires and multimillionaires more than it helps the people we really care about in the bottom 3 quartiles.
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It’s reasonable to assume that $/square foot stays roughly the same for equivalent finish levels regardless of overall size. But in reality a 3,000sf house is typically going to have much higher finish levels than a 1,800sf one. These are the two actual kitchens from King’s house and the $250k one in Charlotte. They have nearly identical layouts, counter and cabinet space, but one of them cost 4x more than the other.
Second kitchen is clearly way nicer than the first one, but I wouldn’t have guessed 4x cost. I assume some of that is due to higher prices in NJ.
I also find the layout of the second kitchen a bitt odd. I see no refrigerator. I assume that it’s just out of frame on the right, but that seems like a bit of an odd place to put it.
$800 stove vs $3,000 dollar stove
$79 faucet vs $299 faucet
Generic builder’s cabinets vs very high end cabinets
Cheap granite vs expensive quartz
No backsplash vs enormous solid piece of marble
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Doesn’t look that different to me. Stove/oven is a dead giveaway though.
eta: Damn, ponied on the stove.
How can you tell the backsplash is marble? I’d have guessed quartz for that too. Of course, still not cheap, tho.
Quartz doesn’t have veins running through it like marble.
Oh yeah, the cabinets are like inset or something. That’s better.
You can definitely get quartz that looks like that. My brother has that in his kitchen.
Maybe a pro can tell the difference from a distance, but it looks a lot like that backspash to me.
You just know they’re going to be all solid hardwood with dovetail joints and super slick hardware.
I also kinda doubt the floor in the $250k house is actually wood.
Yeah not sure if it’s a newish thing, but we’ve been looking and there are quartz options with veins now.
Ha those are horrible.
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Good post. I was thinking about writing something up about how “middle class” isn’t really defined by being at or near median income in modern day America, but you beat me to the punch and did a fine job.
FWIW Lynwood is no joke. The LA County women’s jail is there. Now that Inglewood is gentrifying because of the stadium Lynwood should take over “always up to no good”.
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Lynwood, Lynwood the city of sin… would?
I was an FHA appraiser for about 5 years back when the cap on an FHA load were I think $120k. I appraised a lot of houses in Lynwood in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
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There is some interesting reading and stuff around the concept of the middle class. It intuitively feels like a very American thing but there has been a sort of middle class at least since the late feudal period when some trades people below the nobility were achieving some kind of distinction vs the poorest peasants. So its important to recognize it as a fluid concept.
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