Driving through some subdivisions can be like taking a trip through time. Many builders` projects have a uniform look, with all the houses constructed in a couple of years` span. But in some large developments, where the buildout time has been 5 to 10 years or more, change is clearly perceptible.
As you glide by, the homes seem to alter their shape, just as budding flowers do in time-lapse photography.
”You can drive down the street and see them physically change in size,” said Henry Braley, president of Wynwood Builders of Algonquin. ”You can see a whole new house taking over within the same subdivision.”
Wynwood has been building houses since 1979 at Gaslight Terrace, a project of more than 275 homes on 250 acres divided into separate north and west sections in northwest suburban Algonquin. The older section, Gaslight Terrace North, was previously owned by another builder, and houses have been going up there since 1970.
In Gaslight Terrace`s earliest-built areas, the winding, hilly roads go past ranches and split-levels. Gradually a two-story model pops up here and there, and eventually, the two-story homes predominate and the ranch-style dwellings all but disappear.
In Gaslight Terrace West, where building has been going on since 1983, the houses are mostly two-story Colonial-style residences, but the
evolutionary progression is evident in a steady increase in size. The homes under construction are palatial compared with the early ranches. They don`t look as if they belong in the same neighborhood.
The project represents a condensed version of the story of residential building in the Chicago area in the last 20 years. The title of the story is
”The Little Suburban Tract House and How It Grew.”
”I think very few split-levels are being built today and probably a minimum of ranch,” said Robert Parker Coffin, a Barrington architect who has been designing houses in the Chicago area for more than 30 years.
”Everybody`s building great big barns.”
The story`s subtitle, according to architect Salvatore Balsamo of Balsamo Olson Group Inc., could be ”The Triumph of Want Over Need.”
”Right after World War II,” said Balsamo, ”thousands of houses were built, and they were `need houses.` We built strictly `need houses` to accommodate the families of the servicemen coming back.
”Now we`ve moved all the way across the spectrum to `want housing.` The economic and social lifestyles are much different. People go into a house not to accommodate their needs, but from what they want,” Balsamo said. Twenty years ago, he noted, houses were just starting to make the need-want transition.
Balsamo`s analysis is borne out by Wynwood Builders` experience, according to Wynwood`s Braley. In 1968, he said, the company introduced a two- story, 2,100-square-foot, four-bedroom house, the Charleston, that was at the time the biggest house it built.
”Now it`s the smallest house we build,” said Braley, ”and we hardly ever build it anymore.” He noted that the house cost $45,000, including the lot, in 1968; its current price at Gaslight Terrace-if anyone wanted it-would be $167,000, lot included.
The Charleston went on to become the company`s best-selling model in the mid-1970s, but its appeal died quickly after the end of the early 1980s recession, even after it was expanded to 2,215 square feet. The company, which builds about 60 houses a year, has erected only one Charleston in the last three years.
Wynwood`s current best-seller is the Savannah, a 2,500-square-foot house with a master bedroom suite that includes a sitting room with a fireplace and a bathroom with a whirlpool tub, cathedral ceiling and skylight. Its Gaslight Terrace price is $184,000 with lot.
Luxury features in the bedroom suite also are evidence of the design shift. Such amenities, almost unheard of in builder-produced homes 20 years ago, are standard features today.
”In 1968, the only place that ever had a whirlpool bath was a training room in a training camp,” said David Hoffman, president of Red Seal Development Corp. of Northbrook. ”Today one in four home purchasers buys a whirlpool bath.”
Wynwood`s Savannah bedroom suite also illustrates the marked change in interior layout during the last 20 years. The suite, which also includes a dressing room and walk-in closet, takes up twice the space allocated to the master bedroom and bathroom in the Charleston.
Other areas of the house have opened up as well. Today`s popular features include two-story foyers, great rooms, and more luxurious kitchens with enlarged eating areas. These elements all give rise to a sense of spatial flow that is emphasized by high ceilings and an expanded use of windows. Twenty years ago, in contrast, foyers tended to be cramped, kitchens more limited and living rooms proportionately larger.
”The living room is smaller today than in the `60s,” Balsamo said.
”It`s more of a parlor. The house has been divided into formal and informal areas. The emphasis is on the place where the family really lives. That`s where you get the great room concept.”
These larger and more expensive houses, builders and architects agree, are being bought by the same general social class of people who bought the three-bedroom ranch homes 20 years ago. The difference is that they have more money and are willing to spend more.
”The Baby Boomers have marched through time upgrading their housing and living standards,” Balsamo said.
The increased incomes are due in great part to the larger percentage of two-income families-almost 56 percent today compared to about 40 percent in 1970. At the same time, the typical percentage of family income going into housing rose from 26.5 percent in 1950 to 33 percent in the 1980s.
”Today people will spend as high as 40 percent of their income on housing,” Hoffman said. ”In most cases it`s 30 to 35 percent.”
Other factors leading to housing`s cost spiral are the loss of alternative tax shelters and inflation, which has affected the housing market in a number of ways.
As inflation pushes prices up, builders add amenities to justify the price rise, and that in turn pushes prices up more. At the same time, people can sell their current homes at tremendous profits and move up to more luxurious models.
One of the greatest inflationary spurs has been land prices. The land cost of Wynwood`s Charleston model in 1968 was $4,500, only 10 percent of the $45,000 total price. The land price for the house today is $39,000, more than 23 percent of the total cost.
This trend pushes builders to build larger houses with more amenities, since they would have to charge relatively high prices for smaller houses in any case. For most of them, it doesn`t make sense to build a cheap house on an expensive lot.
”Our experience,” said Hoffman, ”is that if you have to raise prices, you want to give something more. You want to be able to advertise that this is new and improved, not just say the same old house is $1,000 more.”
The ability of builders to give more has been greatly enhanced by the tremendous proliferation of housing products on the market. Today, builders and buyers can leaf through thick catalogues picking out winsome windows and posh plumbing.
”There has been a revolution in plumbing fixtures,” Hoffman said. ”In the 1960s, there was a builders` standard with a few upgrades. Today, bathtubs and water closets and lavatories are pieces of art. There are thousands of faucet sets to choose from.”
An exception to the general increase in the size of houses during the last 20 years is the growing popularity of the townhouse, Hoffman said, especially in prestigious north and west suburban areas where land costs have skyrocketed.
He said that the same family that bought a three-bedroom ranch house as a starter home in 1968 might buy a townhouse as a starter today. ”To live in Northbrook and have a three-bedroom home, in order to get in at anywhere near a reasonable price, the townhouse is an alternative,” he said.
Balsamo agreed that the townhouse is providing housing for families unable to afford stand-alone homes. ”The cost of land has gotten to the point where it is very difficult to build a small detached home to reach out for the first-time buyer.”
North and northwest suburban builder Red Seal, which produces up to 150 units a year, still puts up an occasional ranch house, but it doesn`t look much like Red Seal`s typical ranch of 20 years ago.
The three-bedroom American Heritage, a popular ranch model in Red Seal`s Sunset Fields subdivision built from 1967 to 1969 in Northbrook, had well-defined living room, dining room and family room areas. A three-bedroom ranch in Red Seal`s just-completed Winchester Estates development in Libertyville is organized around one cathedral-ceilinged, skylighted central space containing all the public areas including the kitchen. The master bathroom is a 200-square-foot spa, compared with the American Heritage`s 35-square-foot cubicle containing the bare plumbing essentials.
In the Chicago area, significant numbers of ranch-style and split-level houses are still being built only in far-outlying areas and in some southern suburbs, where land is cheaper.
While much has changed inside the typical Chicago area home in 20 years, the outside generally retains that hallowed neo-Colonial look. ”The exterior envelope is still traditional, based on a person`s emotional ties,” Balsamo said.
”Buyers grew up in the traditional environment; they`re comfortable with it,” he said. ”The basic look of the house has stayed the same, but the lifestyle within and the technology has changed drastically.”
