Opting for Less Yard Without Giving Up Privacy

They were a family of three who moved to Los Angeles after the mother landed a vice president’s job at a pharmaceutical firm.

Back home in Omaha, they lived on a two-acre lot that demanded hundreds of hours a year in yardwork. But with the new promotion, the family deliberately sought a smaller yard. They wanted freedom from foliage that required regular clipping and grass that needed watering and cutting.

So they settled happily in a townhouse in a high-density part of Redondo Beach, where their postage-stamp lot was manicured by landscapers working for the local homeowners’ association.

Still, they didn’t feel cramped, because the property featured a sweeping waterfront view.

“You can feel alone in the middle of a crowd,” said Sue Boehmler, an agent in the Coldwell Banker office in Palos Verdes Estates, who sold the waterfront townhouse to the family two years ago.

There are still many Americans who want the elbow room that comes with having a traditional stand-alone abode set on private grounds large enough to play volleyball.

Many other busy people are tiring of the need to devote their precious free time to yardwork or to supervising landscapers.

“People’s lives move a lot faster today,” said Alan Fields, co-author with Denise Fields of “Your New House” (Windsor Peak Press, 1997).

Higher densities are a fact of life in many new-home communities, given the rising cost of land, Fields pointed out. This is true even where the overall area is not highly populated yet building lots are becoming pricier.

“As land becomes more scarce, builders tend to chop it up in smaller ways,” Fields said.

A home in a high-density area often costs less. Even those who dream of one day becoming part of the landed gentry often must settle for a condo-apartment, a townhouse or a “zero lot line” home, which virtually adjoins another on one or both sides.

This is especially true for many who are entering the home-buying market for the first time.

Art Godi, a Stockton realty executive and former president of the National Assn. of Realtors, tells the story of his 30-year-old son, a management consultant, who chose to live in a high-cost neighborhood of San Francisco but could only afford a townhouse there.

Godi’s son compromised by selecting an end unit townhouse so that he could have windows on three sides of his property. He would have preferred to live in a home with no common walls and a larger yard but not at the expense of a long commute.

By selecting well, you can move to a tightly woven community yet still get a light, bright and private home, real estate specialists say. Here are three pointers:

No. 1: Consider a home with an inner courtyard.

Southern Europeans, Latin Americans and those in other cultures have long relished homes built around open-air courtyards.

Now an increasing number of builders in Southern California are incorporating a central courtyard in their floor plans, said DJ Doss, an agent for Century 21 Automated Real Estate Center in Mission Viejo. Often such a house is designed in a U shape, with the courtyard opening to a backyard patio.

“The courtyard brings the outdoors in and also gives you a quiet place without neighborhood noise,” Doss said.

The courtyard gives homeowners an extra degree of privacy, sunlight and the potential for more rooms to look out upon year-round greenery--regardless of the density of the community where they buy.

But, Boehmler stressed, there are trade-offs. Given the same lot size, a home with a courtyard has less regular living space than one without the same feature. That means you may have to accept a smaller kitchen or master suite, for instance.

No. 2: Check out window views in a tightly packed community.

If you’re living in close proximity to your next-door neighbor, do you want him to be able to peer into your master suite every time your blinds are lifted?

Likewise, would you like your neighbors to have an intimate look at the day-to-day activities in your family room?

Builders call communities where homes are packed as tightly as sardines “single family high-density” neighborhoods. And most builders are sensitive to the need to position rooms so that residents aren’t constantly peering into each others’ living spaces, particularly their bedrooms and family rooms.

But don’t rely solely on your builder. If you’re buying in a high-density neighborhood of stand-alone homes, be sure to consider the floor plan you’re choosing in relation to the houses on either side of you.

If you must give up some privacy to live in the neighborhood of your choice, you may well want to give it up in a more utilitarian room, such as your kitchen, or in a less used room, such as a formal dining room or living room, Boehmler said.

No. 3: Remember the trade-off between home size and free ground space.

In many new-home communities, yards are shrinking because homes are gaining living space, said Fields, the author. That’s because many buyers are clamoring for more internal space, especially larger kitchens, family rooms and master suites.

“People are also coming up with new uses for their rooms,” he said. Buyers are seeking houses with extra bedrooms that can be converted to home offices, exercise rooms or hobby rooms. They also want more square footage for traditional bedrooms; for example, they may want a bedroom for a school-age child large enough for a computer station.

That could mean that they need a 144-square-foot child’s room, rather than the more traditional 100-square-foot space.

The choice of floor space versus land space is a personal one. But the trade-off is worth noting, especially if you’re on a limited budget or plan to buy in a high-priced neighborhood.

Said Fields: “Few people can have it all in a new home.”

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Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.