CONSIDERING HOME

To give you an example of the suburban opulence I have been considering, let’s look at a community in my home state of California. Just about a 40 minute drive from San Francisco, Los Alto Hills is a suburb in Santa Clara County. The census data from Los Alto Hills is impressive, if not a bit frightening. The median family income sits at about $250,000; $180,000 more than the average American family income. The median home price in America is around $458,000. In Los Alto Hills? The median property value is an imposing $2,000,000. What’s more, the home-ownership rate in Los Alto Hills is 92%; These homes are not just pretty to look at but also decisive investments.

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An aerial view of Los Altos Hills is a far cry from an image of Levittown. Just by the shape of the roofs one can easily tell that each home is different from the other. The California suburb also allows for a greater degree of privacy. Where Levittown neighbors are separated by a small strip of grass, those in Los Altos Hills utilize excess shrubbery and winding driveways to individuate from those around them. 

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Though the houses in Los Altos Hills are not as homogenized as the ones in Levittown, they still appear eerily similar. The view of the properties from the image above radiates regulation. This seems to point to a Homeowner Association.

 

A Homeowner Association (HOA) is a group that creates and enforces rules within a specific jurisdiction. An HOA can issue fines for its community members when standards set by the organization are not met. Grass too long? Fined. Trash left outside the bins? Fined. The Homeowners Association not only keeps the aesthetics of its members' houses in check, but they also uphold the manicured behaviors typical to a suburb.

 

Interestingly, Los Altos Hills is not directed by any group like the HOA. How does their suburb seem so uniformed? Without prying eyes from an HOA, it is up to the residents of Los Altos Hills to manage themselves. The regulatory measures taken can be considered through the lens of taste. Two necessary elements for having "good taste," is the recognitions of proportions and balance. If one house in Los Alto Hills appeared proportionately larger than all the other houses, would that signal taste? No, in fact, being the outlier in Los Alto Hills would come across as tacky. When an entire community shares the high median income like in Los Alto Hills, aggrandizing ruins a mutually accepted balance. That balance centers around the idea that one is able to show off their wealth; but not show it off too much. 

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As we've seen, Los Alto Hills maintains a level of uniformity in their suburb for a very different reason than in Levittown. What else separates these modern suburbs from the ones of the past?

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Suburban homes today are no longer about fulfilling basic needs. Instead, they represent a shift in the understanding of home. Exclude those who believe that "home is where the heart is," or "home is wherever i'm with you;" sayings like that will always hold true to people who find little value in material objects. But, to those who do subscribe to materialism, a home now acts as an opportunity to showcase personality. Homes reflect the self-interest aspect of egoism; a departure from collective neighborhoods into isolated personalized compounds.   

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An implicit paradox exists in suburban home-ownership. The contradiction lies in the perception of control. 

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Once you purchase the home on your ideal suburban street, you may feel as if the battle is over. You have made the down payment and you are now the proud owner of a physical demarcation of wealth. Congrats! In reality, control is far from your grasp. 

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Home design today is over inundated with options. There are a plethora of decisions that need to be made as soon as you collect the keys, from the stain on the hardwood to the embellishments on the cabinets. Consider Levittown, where all appliances in the home were fitted by General Electric. While the standardized design limited opportunity for individuality, it also made it so that residents could make experiences in the home — the home itself wasn't the experience. Now, however, something as simple as a stove acts as a further reflection of opulence. Do you buy a basic four burner stove with an oven attached for less than $1,000? Or, do you opt for the same function but with a more reflective stainless steel for $3,000? Very few people will recognize a flashy stove, but you will, and the fact that a choice must be made shows the elusiveness of control. 

 

Once your home is designed in a way that you appreciate, you must also consider how other people are going to experience your choices. Thinking back to my own awareness as a kid in people's homes, I did not hold back from having hypercritical thoughts. Some were purely about stylistic choices; I never appreciated Mediterranean inspired design. Too much beige and too much stone. And, some thoughts were about the dynamic of the home. Being allowed to eat on the couch or wear shoes beyond the entry point indicated a level of ease that reflected on the home-owners themselves. I envied my friends who could leave their rooms in a state of disarray; to someone else, however, a messy room could stir up feelings of disapproval. Ultimately, no matter how you decide to curate your space, you will never be able to manage how people feel once they are inside.

 

You may counter with, "well if I like it, then why does it matter how other people feel?" And to that I answer: Think about the HOA and what it stands for; others' perception of home is the hallmark of modern suburbia. If truly apathetic to other peoples experience, then there would be no need for all the additional square footage and endless bedrooms. Yet, standardized home design no longer suffices. As such, a need for appreciation is inherent in current home design.  

 

Appreciation or even admiration most often arises when one possesses something that the others do not. And that is the final piece in the puzzle of suburbia. In the past, suburbs centered around the idea of community. Neighbors on the street formed relationships with the knowledge that they had equal footing in an expansive middle class. Their houses looked the same and so too did their financial circumstances. In today's suburbia, it's impossible to be sure who lives around you. The house to the left could act as someone's fourth vacation home while the house to the right could be the culmination of an entire life's savings. The colossal divide in economic standing in modern suburbia points away from collectivism towards individualism. You got to suburbia on your own, and you will use all the gates and hostile design to keep it that way.  

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So, why have houses gotten so much bigger? Why has interior design become so extravagant? 

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Houses have moved away from being homes and have grown into the emblem of prosperity. Play house all you want; it's the front door you walk into that defines who you are. 

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On second thought, Levittown isn't sounding too bad. 

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