As I've argued elsewhere , the McMansion ordinance can only hurt the market value of a small home on a small lot. I'd expect small-lot owners to know this. That some support the ordinance anyway has always puzzled me.
This recent economics papermight clear things up. It claims the typical person's well-being depends on how he stacks up against his neighbors. The author matches individual subjective ratings of well-being to earnings information, and finds:
- Between spouses, "higher neighbors' earnings are significantly associated with more frequent open disagreements about money, but not significantly with the frequency of disagreements about household tasks, the children, sex, in-laws or spending time together."
- "Neighbors' earnings significantly reduce satisfaction with the amount of leisure time . . . and satisfaction with one's friendships."
- "The size of the effect [of neighbors' earnings] is meaningful. An increase in neighbors' earnings and a similarly sized decrease in own income each have roughly about the same negative effect on well-being."
- "[T]he effect of neighbors' earnings is significantly stronger for those who socialize more frequently with neighbors but not for those who socialize more frequently with relatives, friends outside the neighborhood or people they work with."
No one disputes that people compare themselves to their neighbors; the dispute, I think, is whether these comparisons have such a strong and systematic effect on happiness. (Some argue the government should not intervene in either case.)
If taken at face value, though, these findings could explain why some small-lot owners support the ordinance. And why neighborhood association officers -- who probably socialize frequently with other neigbors -- are the fiercest McMansionists.
I realize that other justifications have been offered for the McMansion ordinance, such as preserving privacy, backyard gardens, and sunlight. Some people simply hate change (including change to "neighborhood character"). And I concede that there are McMansions out there that will make you flinch.
I don't dispute that people support the ordinance for some or all of these reasons. I've just never believed that these reasons account for all of the support, especially among the small-lot owners who will likely take the biggest hit.
