Inhabitat

October 15, 2006

THE PERFECT $100,000 HOUSE

Who wouldn’t love to go on a 14,000 mile cross-country trip in search for the perfect $100,000 house? While it may sound like the impossible quest, that’s exactly what Karrie Jacobs, founding editor in chief of Dwell magazine did in the summer of 2003.

Her brand new book, “The Perfect $100,000 House” chronicles her journey in search of what she considered the perfect custom home: 1,000 square feet at $100 a square foot. Base on gut more than practical statistics, this number successfully lays the premise that good design doesn’t have to come at a high price.

Promising prospects were found in Crestone, Colorado, Perryvile, MO and Troy, NY — not necessarily hubs of design in the traditional sense - but places with no shortage of innovative ideas when it comes to construction techniques. “The Perfect $100,000 House” makes a compelling case for the variety of options available to prospective home buyers, leaving readers to reconsider their perfect idea of “home.”

The Perfect $100,000 House

$16 from Amazon

6 Responses to “THE PERFECT $100,000 HOUSE”

Orrin Says:

October 15th, 2006 at 3:17 pm

First sentence: a 14,000 what? $14,000? 14,000 mile?

eric Says:

October 15th, 2006 at 10:19 pm

Hate to be pedantic, but “perspective home buyers” should be “prospective home buyers”.

Also, is there any discussion in this book about having an inexpensive (or perhaps reasonably priced) house cost more in the long-run, due to the standard lack of attention given to environmentally- and wallet-friendly measures that can be taken to (pre-)fabricate a house? For example, just because a house is $100 per square foot, if that cost doesn’t include proper insulation and good orientation with respect to its surroundings, the price point becomes far less meaningful. Maybe that’s not the point of the book. But discussing the purchase and selection of one’s home without talking about the energy it will use is, in the 21st century, antiquatedly ignorant of the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Especially if the author claims “perfection”.

Ryan Says:

October 16th, 2006 at 1:42 pm

Hey, I’m in Troy, NY right now! And a perfect $100,000 home I see not. The parts of town where I can imagine a $100k home existing are not the parts of town you want to live in. Maybe I have to read the book to end my puzzlement.

frances Says:

October 16th, 2006 at 1:58 pm

If nothing else, if the book helps get people thinking smaller in this country of living big (houses, cars, weight, sprawl, etc.), then it’s worth the trees it’s printed on.

Frank Says:

October 16th, 2006 at 6:09 pm

Hi,

Great idea! But sadly a 1000sq foot home is just NOT what most customers are looking for. I believe average home sizes keep creeping upward. Probably over 2300 sq ft, which even at $100 a sq foot is $230,000 and not really affordable for many families.

I agree we need to become more attuned to minimizing square footage without necessarily sacrificing life style, healthy home, sustainable, green concepts.

Also much of the design seems to focus on INDIVIDUAL homes, I’d love to see more efforts on housing for small developments of 50-100 units that are holistically planned. Look forward to your comments.