Million-dollar fixer-upper for sale: five bedrooms, four baths, three-car garage, cavernous living room. Big holes above fireplace where flat-screen TV used to hang.The consequences of sprawl continue to demonstrate little distinction among its targets. The crazy thing is that there are literally hundreds of thousands of these McMansions, located in isolated places where daily things like a loaf of bread, can only be obtained via a car trip.
The U.S. housing crisis has come to McMansion country.
Just as the foreclosure crisis has hollowed out poorer neighborhoods, "for sale" signs are sprouting in upscale developments so new they don't show up on GPS navigation screens.
Poor people weren't the only ones who took out risky, high-interest loans during the housing boom. The sharp increase in housing costs -- and the desire to live in brand-new, spacious houses with modern features -- led many affluent buyers to take out loans they couldn't afford.
Now, the permanent increases in gasoline will make these places incredibly difficult to resell because fewer and fewer will be able to afford the auto-centric lifestyle that they demand.
This whole mess is spiraling and the spiral is getting faster and faster...
