[Leica] Re: Replacement houses

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Jun 19, 2006, at 3:46 PM, Dick wrote:

> This is very common in Boston's western suburbs now, too (and
> probably in any town within easy commuting distance of downtown).
> Any small house in Lexington, Bedford or Concord, to name just three
> of the nearby towns, is ripe for destruction and replacement by a
> house two to three times its size.  We lost another one just up the
> street two weeks ago.  Progress.  ;-)


You are railing against the invisible hand of economics. Believe it or 
not, desirable land prices near urban centers have risen much faster 
than the costs of construction. When we bought our home 40 years ago in 
a wooded area near the Hudson River, land sold for about $10,000 per 
buildable acre. Last year we were offered $250,000 for a spare acre in 
back of our house. To assure adequate drainage for a septic system in 
the rocky soil a minimum of two acres is required. Now if you own a 
building plot worth half a million dollars, what kind of a house are 
you going to put on it? Even if there was a habitable house on your 
land when you bought it, you would probably tear it down and erect a 
MacMansion. It would certainly make your banker happy. It would also 
make the tax assessor and the city fathers dance with joy. It costs no 
more to service an expensive house than a cheap one but the tax bill is 
three to four times as much.

And to keep this OT, when the price of 35 mm film gets to $30 a roll, 
what kind of camera are you going to use to expose each precious frame? 
Certainly not a P&S. Only the best Leica will be worthy of such an 
expensive feast.

Larry Z