Here's The Difference Between A Mansion And A McMansion

We're all familiar with mansions — the larger-than-life homes people like movie stars and surgeons own. But have you ever heard of a McMansion (no, it isn't something you order at McDonald's)? Essentially, the difference between the two homes boils down to how and where they were built. McMansions first came about in the 1980s and were designed for the suburban middle class to emulate the wealth of an upper-class estate. However, homeowners quickly learned what a terrible investment they had made by purchasing one of these ginormous 5,000–square-foot homes. 

Unlike mansions, McMansions are mass-produced, meaning they lack the quality needed to last a long time. A good foundation requires balance and symmetry, which McMansions do not have. It's the same as mass-producing clothing. You aren't going to get the same high-quality material as you would a designer item, so it's more likely to fall apart. Besides being cheaply made, there are several reasons these homes are no longer hot-ticket real estate purchases.

One of the major selling points of a McMansion is it has great resale value. It's built in a way that crosses off the list of what homeowners are looking for. It has a certain amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, a large living space, and a massive backyard. Some of these homes have pools and other unnecessary features potential buyers would find desirable. However, when the time comes to put their McMansion on the market, homeowners are shocked to find out it has a lower resale value than they were made to believe.

Why? Because buyers want something that has been built with time and effort, not just some rush job for the sake of saying they have a movie theater in their basement. They're paying high-quality prices for low-quality work. In some extreme cases, homeowners were forced to foreclose their property, making absolutely no money off the so-called amazing investment. In the end, it's a major loss.

On an aesthetic level, a McMansion is actually nothing to fawn over. If you take a closer look at the design, you'll notice how off–balance it is. For starters, these homes have absolutely no clue when it comes to equally distributing mass. In other words, they're constructed with so many masses, that the primary mass ends up being a connector besides the secondary ones. You can really tell once you're inside. There's just a bunch of empty space that doesn't serve any purpose besides expanding the size of the home.

In neighborhoods with more modest-looking houses, a McMansion sticks out like a sore thumb. It disrupts the flow of the rest of the block, which can affect the resale value of other properties. Living on a street next to an undesirable–looking home can actually decrease your home's value by 10%, per Atlantic Bay. So, not only is a McMansion down-right ugly, but it could potentially ruin a homeowner's chance at selling their property for what it's truly worth.