![\"Ya](\"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg\")
\u201cNot to be a contrarian, but the shade is better when the patio is under a\u00a0truss.\u201d<\/p><\/div>Until 1974, production homes in Metropolitan Phoenix were block-constructed ranch houses: The side-walls, frequently windowless, bore the load of a rafter-and-shingle roof. Single-story, necessarily, and wide-and-shallow on the lot, like all ranch homes. Galvanized-steel ducting, so low hallways \u2013 and low ceilings generally. The trade-off, of course, is that a block-home will stand for centuries. The roof needs maintenance, but the walls are not going anywhere.<\/p>\n
They built zillions of these homes in the decades after World War II \u2013 America’s suburbanizing miracle. But then in 1974 the brick-masons went on strike and the new-home builders switched to stick-and-stucco construction \u2013 Orange County vaulted. Because the homes are built on a truss, the ceilings can soar \u2013 with aluminized-mylar hose to hide the ugly ducting. When AC-compressors were pulled off roofs, the roofs got tiled, and we’ve been building stick-stucco-and-tile ever since.<\/p>\n
But unlike block-homes, stick-stucco-and-tile houses are wedding cakes: They melt in very short order without constant maintenance.<\/p>\n
Because block-homes last \u2013 and because they can withstand repeated remodelings \u2013 they seem to represent a better long-term value for home-buyers. By contrast, the steady maintenance required by stick-built homes can lead to whole communities seeming to crash all at once, with too-obvious deferred maintenance leading in lockstep by bad example.<\/p>\n
My point would be what? I’m delighted to see concrete returning to the new-home subdivision sales office. Not here quite yet, but the price of lumber makes thoroughly-modern masonry more competitive every day.<\/p>\n
In other news:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Housing Wire:<\/strong> Real Estate Exchange files antitrust suit against Zillow, NAR.<\/a><\/p>\n CNBC:<\/strong> 3D-printed housing developments suddenly take off \u2013 here\u2019s what they look like.<\/a><\/p>\n Victory Girls:<\/strong> Ilhan Omar Wants to Take Your Rental Properties.<\/a><\/p>\n City Journal:<\/strong> Crossing the Line: The CDC stretched its authority to halt evictions, but it has taken a hands-off approach to preventing the spread of Covid-19 across the southern border.<\/a><\/p>\n Julie Kelly:<\/strong> One Year Later, Vindication for Lockdown Skeptics: The overwhelming majority of Americans last March acted in good faith to do what we were told was in the best interest of <\/a>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cNot to be a contrarian, but the shade is better when the patio is under a\u00a0truss.\u201dUntil 1974, production homes in Metropolitan Phoenix were block-constructed ranch houses: The side-walls, frequently windowless, bore the load of a rafter-and-shingle roof. Single-story, necessarily, and wide-and-shallow on the lot, like all ranch homes. Galvanized-steel ducting, so low hallways \u2013 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-group-therapy","7":"category-lending","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1741,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1741\/project-perfect-blogger-applying-what-ive-learned\/","url_meta":{"origin":17959,"position":0},"title":"Project Perfect Blogger – Applying What I’ve Learned.","author":"Kris Berg","date":"August 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I shared the formula for the perfect Blog post. I acquired this wisdom at the Inman conference, and now it is time to test my new skills as I attempt to target the Scripps Ranch home buyer (and risk killing this bit once and for all). Note to feed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":204,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/204\/last-days-of-the-single-family-homestead-in-frontier-las-vegas\/","url_meta":{"origin":17959,"position":1},"title":"Last days of the single-family homestead in Frontier Las Vegas?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"They have this amazing innovation in Las Vegas. It's called a newspaper, and what it is is a daily detailed run down of important facts with no editorializing, which they somehow manage to constrain to the opinion pages. It would be so wonderful to have something like this in Phoenix...\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3282,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3282\/casual-friday-caption-this-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":17959,"position":2},"title":"Casual Friday: Caption this photo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"Because I happen to like Argyle socks, that's why!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3822,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3822\/caption-this-photo-president-bush-at-the-olympics\/","url_meta":{"origin":17959,"position":3},"title":"Caption this photo: President Bush at the Olympics","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"A gentleman always makes eye-contact.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8385,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8385\/caption-me-this-magnum\/","url_meta":{"origin":17959,"position":4},"title":"Caption Me This Magnum","author":"Brian Brady","date":"May 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My vote?\u00a0 \"Who let Higgins in to your closet, Thomas? \" Sometimes, you just gotta have a sense of humor.","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":596,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/596\/how-do-you-sneak-up-on-a-freeway\/","url_meta":{"origin":17959,"position":5},"title":"How do you sneak up on a Freeway . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Reflecting upon today's Arizona Republic column, here is a story I've been sitting on all week:Work is under way to build a bridge on Cotton Lane and expand the road from Maricopa County 85 to Estrella Parkway. The project will produce a half-mile, six-lane bridge over the Gila River complete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17960,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17959\/revisions\/17960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}