I think she (the realtor lady) said about 2000. It was really spacious
and light feeling. The original Victorians around here had lots of
tiny rooms, tight gloomy little staircases, no closets, and almost no
light. The trend is to practically gut them - sometimes literally
leaving a few sticks from the original, so it's still a "renovation" -
and open them up and lighten them up. Few people have 8 kids these
days.
A house just down from me (a newish 2-3 y/o 'town house' - part of a terrace of 11) on a *smaller* plot
than mine went for just shy of £400,000 last year. No garage.
Quite crazy.
Here, it's not as crazy away from the coasts, but there are fewer jobs
there too.
San Francisco is going insane. The skyline is a forest of those huge
tower cranes, putting up dozens of office buildings and monster
300-unit condo heaps. There is most likely going to be a condo
bubble/burst in a couple of years, since they'll all hit the market
together and I can't imagine where all the jobs will come from to
populate them all. If it does bottom out, maybe we'll try to nab one
for The Brat.
Luckily, the voters here passed a referendum some years back, prop
"M", that restricted high-rise development to a clearly defined
"downtown" zone, so the quiet residential parts of the city won't be
overgrown with huge developments.
John