Extreme Makeover - Is It Really Reality… TV ?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Each week, an average 9.4 million viewers tune in to ABC-TV for what has become a classic formula: Find a struggling family with a heart-tugging story and send them on vacation as an army of volunteers work frantically to replace an existing home with a much nicer and bigger one in just 106 hours. Each episode ends with a dramatic tear-filled tour of the new home, packed with donated furnishings, and outsize extras like a carousel or bowling lanes.
ABC’s popular reality show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” makes dreams come true for needy families. But some people are tapping the equity on their expansive new homes, only to fall behind… and into foreclosure.
The house at 10512 Baldy Mountain Rd. in Sandpoint, Idaho, looks like just another vacant foreclosed home. Some appliances, a bathroom mirror and even the hot tub are missing. The dining room of the three-bedroom house has water damage. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill problem house. The 3,678-square-foot McMansion is one of a couple of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” homes to fall on hard times. After the cameras have gone, it seems that Homeowners struggle to keep up with their expensive new digs. In most cases, the bigger, more lavish homes have come with bigger utility bills and tax assessments. Some homeowners have even gone as far as to tap into the equity of their super-sized homes only to fall behind on the higher mortgage payments. The show’s producers say they are aware of the problem and are making changes appropriate to current economic reality: downsizing.
Over the past few years, the makeovers got a little out of hand because of competition among home builders aware of the free publicity that came with the show and who tried to outdo previous projects. Today, the average size of the show’s makeovers is 2,800 to 3,000 square feet. (In comparison, a 2005 episode featured a house in Lake City, Ga., that became a 5,300 square-foot English castle boasting five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, five fireplaces and an outdoor kitchen.)
A swimming pool is no longer a must, unless it could be used for therapy. When pools are built, the show explores a well system to help reduce water usage and costs. Lavish landscaping is also out and working with the local environment is in.
Tracy Hutson, an interior designer who has been with “Extreme Makeover” since the beginning, says homes are receiving more earth-friendly products, such as low water-flow toilets and solar panels, curbing the giant electricity bills that caused a hardship for some families. “I think our hearts were in the right place, but we just got carried way”, said Ms. Hutson. Really?!
- Scott Askew
Posted in: Intown Atlanta Real Estate News