Its possible this is the case. But its also that the industry loves to build "award winning houses" with the most expensive interior finishes possible, making houses extremely expensive with granite counters, hardwood floors, best of everything in lighting and appliances, while building these in the worst house envelopes possible. Its nuts, but its what has been going on for decades.
The thought of curb appeal is largely gone.
A little less spending on the interior elements and spending an extra 40K for stucco (now around that for these giant houses.) This is the thing too is that Vinyl cladding has paved the way for a lot of these giant 2500 ft homes.
In Laurel, the ugliest area of the city possible tons of these monstrosities exist. All looking the same. Different shades of vinyl siding being the only way to tell houses apart in the daytime... Ironically these all build up in the very path that the 87 Black Friday tornado took. These are houses of cards. Next, on smaller lots and so close together that vinyl catches fire on one house, the other goes up in flames. How code even allows these houses to be built so close together and so close to property line is reprehensible. No standards here, and disasters waiting to happen.
