--- title: Here's Why You're Lucky You Don't Own a McMansion description: Trulia.com data finds that McMansion values have not held their price premium. authors: - name: Martha C. White role: Writer url: https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/ education: BA, English, Princeton University at_money_since: 2015 articles: 350 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology published: '2016-08-24T15:50:09.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T03:27:33.000Z' section: Housing tags: - buying real estate - mcmansion - pubdesk - real estate - real estate market - selling a home - trulia word_count: 272 canonical: https://money.com/mcmansions-are-bad-investments/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![mcmansion-investment](https://img.money.com/2016/08/mcmansion-investment.jpeg) McMansions might be one of the most ostentatious signs of wealth a person can buy, but they don't necessarily show financial smarts. In fact, data shows that McMansions are actually horrible investments. Real estate site [Trulia.com](http://Trulia.com) found that McMansion resale values are in the gutter, with price premiums dropping more than 80% in some parts of the country. According to [Bloomberg](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-23/mcmansions-define-ugly-in-a-new-way-they-re-a-bad-investment), Trulia looked at price appreciation of McMansion-sized homes — those with footprints of 3,000 to 5,000 square feet — over the peak of the real estate market, ending just before the Great Recession in 2007. They then tracked what happened to the value of those homes. ***Read More: [New Home Sales Reach 9-Year High](https://money.com/new-home-sales-high/)*** The results looks as unpleasant as those in-your-face three-car garages and ridiculous architectural flourishes: "The additional cash that buyers should be willing to part with to get a McMansion fell in 85 of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas," Bloomberg said. People who paid a bundle for their McMansion at the peak of the market now have huge homes that didn't retain that additional value — that is, if they haven't [lost them](http://business.time.com/2011/11/14/mcmansion-cul-de-sacs-become-college-student-ghettos/) entirely to foreclosure by now. There are several possible reasons for this, Bloomberg said: There's more demand for smaller, more modest starter homes as a huge wave of millennials reaches home-buying age, and McMansions that were slapped together in a hurry at the peak of the market don't have the kind of quality construction to command sky-high prices. There's also the distinct possibility that would-be McMansion buyers are now acknowledging what the rest of us have known all along: They're just really, really ugly. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/mcmansions-are-bad-investments/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's Why You're Lucky You Don't Own a McMansion" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/mcmansions-are-bad-investments/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/mcmansions-are-bad-investments/", "name": "Here's Why You're Lucky You Don't Own a McMansion", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-08-24T15:50:09.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/mcmansions-are-bad-investments/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/mcmansions-are-bad-investments/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T03:27:33.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Here's Why You're Lucky You Don't Own a McMansion", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/08/mcmansion-investment.jpeg", "width": 4063, "height": 2704, "caption": "mcmansion-investment" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha C. 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