From the WSJ:
Here’s a rarity: A $39,900 house in Manhattan’s West Village, where townhomes often go for millions.
On Monday afternoon at the corner of Washington and Charles Streets in the West Village, entrepreneur Michael de Jong stood in a winter coat, giving tours of one of his 320-square-foot MEKA Luxury Modular Homes, which took about five days to assemble on-site. Sadly, for NYC bargain hunters, the home’s site is only temporary. The house, made from a shipping container, is on display there until the end of the month.
The West Village open house, which is set up in a vacant lot next to a bike shop owned by one of Mr. Jong’s friends, is an American coming-out party of sorts for MEKA homes. The company, formed a year ago, is based in Toronto. The homes are built for $24,000 apiece in a factory in the eastern Chinese seaport of Ningbo. Meka’s only sold 10 units so far–mostly in Canada–and are looking for a foothold in the city.
Mr. Jong says he wants American consumers to think of his homes not as houses so much as well-designed luxury products. To that end, they have modern-looking finishes, smooth surfaces, clean, no-nonsense bamboo wood flooring and a deck made out of the cut-out side of the shipping container. The walls are mostly glass picture windows.
“It’s modern-looking, sexy, sleek,” he says. “It’s a product design, not a housing design.”
“American tourists said, ‘I don’t have million dollars to buy a condo on the beach. But I do have $200,000,” he said. For that, you can buy a piece of cheap land and put a 3-bedroom (made of four shipping containers) MEKA house up on it in a few weeks, instead of spending months or years building a “stick-built” house from the ground up.
SD County Detached & Attached Sales, Nov:
2008: 2,384 – $225/sf
2009: 2,733 – $233/sf
2010: 1,596 – $263/sf (month-to-date)
Buyers are willing to pay more, but are holding out for even better quality. Properties that aren’t selling must be way wrong on price.
I thought Jim would like this quote:
“The consumer does seem much more willing to spend when the product and the price is right,” Meyer said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-26/toys-r-us-sears-open-early-as-black-friday-shoppers-flood-u-s-stores.html
I’m seeing all sorts of references in the news now that consumers are ready to spend, but they think prices across the board are still to high and they’re waiting for the right combination of price and value.
This is applying to everything from housing to 46″ big screen TV’s.
Like it? I love it!
The second half of her quote:
“But consumers are increasingly waiting closer to Christmas” in the hopes that the deals will be better. She expects a last-minute shopping stampede.
Another quote:
“We’re here to check things out today,” said the 47-year- old nurse from Hoboken, New Jersey. “We’ll wait until vendors get more desperate.”
“they think prices across the board are still to high and they’re waiting for the right combination of price and value.”
Remember those appliance rebates making the rounds, state by state, this past year?
We were in the market to replace a 15 yr. old washer and dryer. We signed up for a $200 washer rebate (no dryer rebate offered), but never used it, because we felt pricing (even with the rebate) wasn’t discounted nearly enough to pull the trigger. Glad we waited, and that our old equipment held up in the process. A couple of weeks ago we happened upon an unadvertised deal at our local Lowe’s, picking up both units for the price of one (50% off).
I like the design of the “box” – looks like a nice solution for a cheap beach house in Mexico.
RE: fewer house selling at higher prices. . .this seems to show that the top of the economy is recovering first – stock market’s 60% rise has helped wealthier people to spend more, and corporations are now cash-rich again, so execs can also spend. This is typical of recoveries – let’s hope it continues, and “trickles down” to Main Street.
I wonder where this place is that a beachfront condo goes for a million, but an empty lot can be had for less than $200,000?
I wonder if you could put wheels underneath that puppy and meander from walmart to walmart camping in parking lots?
So just when you think at least they can’t outsource our construction jobs, looks like China is going to sell us houses, too.
I like these better:
http://www.tinytexashouses.com/
I wonder where this place is that a beachfront condo goes for a million, but an empty lot can be had for less than $200,000?
Mark | November 28th, 2010 at 11:34 am
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My thoughts exactly. It’s not the price of the houses that are too high, it’s the price of the land underneath them that is too high, IMHO.
So is this what the Texter’s Generation can expect when they graduate college? A sub-400 square foot shack dolled up to be a home?
So much for the American Dream.
If anyone here in So Cal is interested in ‘factory built’ homes and/or construction I would encourage a trip up to the Corona area to visit Silvercrest Homes (http://www.silvercrest.com)
They give tours of their massive factory weekly and watching these homes come together on an assembly line is truly amazing and gets you thinking.
It is generations beyond the old double-wide mobile homes.
I see nothing wrong with a manufactured home. I do see something wrong with a 320 square foot home. My old one bedroom apartment was bigger than that. The family room in my house is bigger than that. Since there is a three bedroom model apparently, it looks like you can buy these in more normal sizes as well, which is pretty cool, except for the whole “Made in China” aspect.