German Houses vs. American Houses: Construction, Design & Scale
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- čas přidán 26. 04. 2024
- Take it from an architect: German Houses and American Houses are very different. ...But why? From construction methods to form and scale, we take you through a fun exploration of residential design and the policies that shape them.
Looking to learn more about housing in Germany and the USA? Check out these great videos:
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👉Quick Jump to Your Favorite Topic:
00:00 Intro
00:30 In Today's Video
03:44 WHICH ONES should we compare?
05:56 The American Dream & Single-Family McMansions
10:02 German Rental Market & Multi-Family Housing
13:59 USA Wood Frame Construction
16:34 German Homes are Built to Last (SOLID Construction)
21:52 Coming Up on the Next Episode....
23:05 Laugh with Us
Episode 38 | #housing and #architecture in the USA and Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany | Filmed January 20, 2021
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Originally from the Midwest of the USA, we moved to the #blackforest in 2013 and quickly embraced #expatlife. As American expats living in #Germany, things weren't always easy, but we've grown to love our life in Germany. We started this #travelvlog to share our experiences with friends and family, and to help those who are interested in moving overseas! Whether you are interested in moving abroad, working abroad, studying abroad, raising a family abroad, or just want to #traveleurope, we're here to give you a first person look at what lies ahead. 😊🎥🌎
As a European traveling to the US and visiting family living there, I got the impression that houses were built the way you make movie or theater sets. It looks luxurious but you get the impression your could poke a finger through the walls. Unfortunately, french building companies are beginning to copy the US model to reduce costs and maximize profits. I live in a traditional house built in 1885. It will still be there in 100 years. So even if CO2 emissions are higher to build a solid structure, it will last way longer. I believe that is more sustainable.
Yeah, we got a house in the sticks, the stone foundation was laid with a root cellar and the house was built in the 1840's. Since then additions has been made, a glorified "wing" (basically an extra room was added, which later became another extra rooms when the roof was raised) was added in 1890's, biggest one was in the 1920's when the roof was redone and a second story was added. At the same time the house was "electrified", ie connected to the grid, but you can still cook and heat the house with fire wood even to this day.
Since then only minor alterations/additions have been made, like an outbuilding with washing machine, sauna (original one down by the lake unfortunately burned to the ground in the 1980's) etc. Our family uses it as a retreat all year round, summers for chilling, autumn for picking berries/mushrooms, winter for skiing and ice fishing, spring for chilling. As long there is someone living there, off and on, and taking care of the house, it will probably stand for another hundred years, if not more.
My house was build round about in the 1600 ^^ Of corse it was renovated in the past, but I agree with you that its more sustainable
I always say that these scenes in movies or shows where someone punches through a wall in anger could not happen in an average German house because the structure would rather lead to broken bones. If you look at the wall-punching scenes in Dark, you'll know what I mean ;)
Its not like that intentionally. Its a really big cultural thing to make buildings out of wood here. Even here in Canada.
Our buildings are made of concrete and steel normally, but architects would normally add wooden pillars/supports/whatevertheircalled to the buildings anyways. It genuinely looks nice, and is more of a cultural thing.
Same with America. The continent has alot of wood already, so its preferable.
The US model is being copied because of climate laws in Western Europe. In Austria, since 2021, you can not get any funding for brick houses since they do not achieve the low heating requirements. Only the ones which use body heat to warm the house get funding now all of which are wooden pre fab houses.
I would state that one additional point why renting is so popular in Germany is, because the protection of the rights of renter is much higher and for families in particular.
This is also a great point. I think we are going to dig into the regulations that promote renter protection in the next video in the series. Really so interesting!
Good point. There are a lot more laws about building a house and renting I would suggest.
@@colmcorbec7031 It depends...the housing and costs must be "angemessen" "reasonable".
If you own an apartment or a house on the outskirts of town or village, the job center won't give you much trouble.
But if you have a villa in e.g. Berlin-Zehlendorf worth hundreds of thousands or even millions, then they will insist on a sale.
but every coin has two sides . Yes, the renter is protected , but to a point where it doesent makes any sense anymore... There are owner of apartments who cannot legaly push out the "renter" who stoped paying the rent after like 6 months. 12 month later he is still in the apartment , the owner looses out on rent money and in addition the apartment decays from inside because of the inhabitants do not clean their rooms or produce all kinds of dmg..
German land has been owned, sold, parceled up and resold for centuries and generations, going back to well before the Roman empire. There is a lot of land locked up by families for generations. The fewer number of dynastic wealthy families in the U.S., and the far greater amount of land, allows more people lower down the economic scale to make a first time land or dwelling purchase.
There is one thing about "solid construction" vs "wood frame structure" that has always been nagging me. When you see pictures of a tornado aftermath, it has practically levelled the whole area. And I wonder how it would look, if the houses were build to German building code. I mean, my gut says something like: "Oh yeah, the roofs might have blown off, windows might be smashed, but the rest of the structure should still be sound". But maybe I underestimate the actual force of a tornado.
My guess is that it is much easier, and cheaper, to do some changes. Immagine you like the design of your house not more that much. Take it down and build a new one. ;-)
I follow since a while an off grid living channel at the USA. As a German I'm some times shocked how they can do this or that.
For example wirering, line voltage in USA is just 110volts, but that can also kill! But it seems they spend never a thought about that. Cable channels in walls at German building, are as low as possible or as high as possible, usually a hand above floor or below the ceiling.
Or insulation, Sprayfoam ... just in the gaps of the wood frame. And plywood from outside. There is then zero insulation where the plywood is nailed to the frame. Nailed, everything is nailed. Do they know what a screw is for?
I've seen a video of a massive hurricane in a village in Tchequia, where houses looked the same as in Germany. A very tall (20m ?) and sturdy fir tree was broken within seconds as if it was a chop stick. But the houses behind it - not one single roof tile was lost.
And I have always asked myself the same question as you.
And additionally: how on earth can anybody be so friggin dumb to build cardboard houses in hurricane areas? How on earth can the authorities allow that? And why do they complain when one of the season's inevitable hurricanes has flattened their house and they "have lost everything'" ? And why do these dumbheads get sympathy and help??
@@anadubar4819 IIRC a lot of places in high-risk areas require special insurance plans for disaster coverage, so the builders can just build cheap houses and forward the cost onto the homeowners through their insurance premiums
You underestimate it MASSIVELY.
Look at what tornados have done to schools. Schools are usually not made of wood like houses are, and are normally made out of concrete and steel.
Okay, getting some answers really peaked my interest to "do my own reasearch" ;) The point is I didn't consider Tornados much of an issue here in Germany, because you hardly hear of them in the news but actually there are between 20 to 60 events every year (300-500 in the whole of Europe). And yes I kind of totally underestimate the sheer force. It's not only the wind, but also the debris the tornado picks up. At best it's basically sandblasting a building, but it also carries larger pieces, bricks, trees, cars, busses, etc. And everything of the latter acts like a wrecking ball and once the structure is weakend, the windforce has an easy game even at a brick and mortar construction. So just transplanting German building code into Tornado Alley would not do the trick. An example of what an F4 Tornado does in Germany: czcams.com/video/dwioMf4N968/video.html
One of the things I noticed while living in Germany is that the individual houses tend to have very small, purposely small “front yards”, and the backyards can be an unexpected paradise of massive size where all sorts of plants and gardening occurs. In the US our front yards are just for show- A total waste where they could instead be growing food.
The 1st thing that struck me in my newly developed Canadian neighborhood? People had their BBQ in the driveway, mostly eating in the garage. - I was asked why I don't BBQ. I responded: Well. I do not eat or BBQ in my driveway. I do that on my big patio in the garden..... Response? "Why are you hiding.....?" - I never got used to eat in the front of my house. ;-)
For a long time it’s been considered a status symbol to be able to afford a large space of grass that isn’t being used for farming.
When we visited this fall, we were SHOCKED at the fact that we couldn’t hear anybody. It really felt like we were living in a single family home honestly.
I'm sure you and many of your subscribers know the Not Just Bikes CZcams channel that really goes in depth into the massive consequences that come about from the US obsession with larger houses in sprawling subdivisions and the absolute dependence on cars that that obsession drives and how that also drives city planning and zoning. It's a really good channel for anyone looking for comparisons between the States and Europe on a more macro city level.
We really enjoy their content! Thanks for sharing.
Matt Risinger czcams.com/users/MattRisinger , has a whole series of informative construction programs about/with a comparison to the German-speaking area.
Among other things, he also visited one of the largest construction fairs in Germany.
@@TypeAshton czcams.com/video/CCOdQsZa15o/video.html This is a very good video Not Just Bikes made about this topic, it explains why the US doesn't have too many Multi family homes
@@TypeAshton Meulaboh Aceh Barat Johan Pahlawan
That channel almost had me ready to move to the Netherlands or other Dutch countries 🤣
As a native German who always wanted to live in the US its always suprising to see what benefits living in germany actually give me
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Certainly it's your right to choose where to live, but Germany & Germans have nothing to envy the US, actually without Germanic tech, scientific, and industrial historic legacy- America would not be what is today. I admire the US, but i deeply respect the Germanic industrial history.
@@cesarlacayo3071 actually without american technology you would not be able to make ignorant comments here 🤣
@@inka87871 With or without?
It's pretty dope here in Germany yea
Hi guys, I'm a Brit having lived here in Germany for 10 years and similar questions have often popped up in my mind, plus I'm often asked why the British do things differently and why so in the States. On the subject of 'elephant in the room' and 'historical events', my experience is that you don't need to tip toe around the subject.Ive been teaching here for ten years and my adult students have shown no reluctance to discuss historical events, particularly since they impact on many cultural beliefs for example views on debt and financial management. You of course have already experienced the typical attitude and 'trust' of bargeld!! Ive always assumed that house construction has been largely dictated by the climate and availability of raw materials. I will be in treated is hearing your comments on cellars which were quite common in the UK but no longer so, I assume purely to reduce the construction costs. Whereas I have always found them immensely useful but used quite differently to my American friends who think of them more of in terms of a 'Den'. There is of course a bunker element in this discussion but I'm not sure how significant this is. Really looking forward to following this series from a couple of professionals............living the dream.
PS I also love living here and I have been really impressed how my neighbours and friends have helped me integrate into the community.
PPS Still haven't totally got the hang of giving priority to vehicles coming out from the right from what to me seems like minor roads but I'm getting there. It also confuses people when I thank them for giving way to me when clearly I had the priority. Still.....good manners hey!
".... It also confuses people when I thank them for giving way to me when clearly I had the priority. Still.....good manners hey!" Love it! We can use all the kindness we can get in Germany. Don't change it! Keep on confusing us in this kind way that putts a smile not just on our faces but also in our hearts.
I also thank the stopping cars as a pedestrian at the crosswalk, not at the traffic light! Right before left I think is good, less signs and slows down traffic.
Thank you for this. This was such a wonderful comment. I think our reluctance to talk about the subject and "tip toe" a little bit is because we are Americans and we want to be respectful and recognize the conflict that might come from our positionality. We have also often found that our German friends carry on such wonderful and objective conversations about the War and the resulting financial/economic consequences.
And thank you so much for the great point about cellars. Interestingly American "basements" in many homes are no longer simply storage areas, but media rooms, play rooms with a bar and entire media entertainment centers. I think that could also be a really great topic because they aren't necessarily standard across the US.
Thank you again for the great comment! We are thrilled that you enjoyed the video.
I second that! Just speak out frankly. No need to handle the subject with kid gloves.
@@TypeAshton
I can understand this "tip toeing" from a cultural standpoint. I eperienced, that americans often aren't very open to discussions about certain topics with strangers, exspecially on negative topics, even if they see it critically themselves. At least that's how I experienced it.
For them, it is kind of shaming and blaming. Germans on the other hand tend to have no problem to talk with strangers about their countries negative sides.
My guess is, that it is because of the differences regarding patriotism. Americans tend to have a strong emotional connection to the USA, so any form of criticism is concerning them on a personal level as well. Germans on the other hand usually don't have this strong emotional connection to the country as a whole. And we learn to talk about the miserable past already in the school. And we are used to get it shown in a lot of movies, as well. We are just more used to not take such things personally.
One thing, that culture shocked me on my last US trip is the extremely poor workmanship in construction.From new interior builds in Baltimore and NYC brownstone buildings to the suburbs: Cutting corners everywhere. From let's say adventurous public wiring to the silicon beads in the bathroom, from uneven floors to visible corner-cutting on repair jobs of tin roofs to bad water pressure. About every place I saw at least 5 to 6 issues that would get a German craftsman sued.
It should be said though that, even in Germany, if you need something in your home to get done by craftspeople, you either have to have the necessary knowledge and oversight abilities or hire someone who does, because if you don't, it is not unlikely that they'll cut every corner they possibly can as long as the result is not immediately life-threatening.
Its true! I work in construction and craftsman here dont have a craft most of the time. They just want fast easy money. Total bs if you care about your trade!
1000% even being from Easter Europe work which done here is nuts for us. Noone ever would accept it in Europe. its just very bad lazy unprofessional work everywhere!
Houses here in US at winter is horrible cold gets inside from everywhere if you touch a wall its insanely cold. Seems Insulation with years just fell apart. Windows usually are pretty bad too with just 1-2 layers no sound proofing cold gets thru those easily too. Yea..... I wish we had at least half way closer to German/European quality.
The American Way. That same mentality is woven into most processes. It’s myopic and driven by fast money versus the long term benefit.
Having lived in various places and visited even more all over germany i can assure you that german craftsmen also cut corners, you just don't see it at first glance.
I remember waking up at night to a loud bang of shattering glass, completely confused we started looking around only to find that whoever had mounted the glass walls of the shower hadn't bothered to set them up straight. After meassuring the mounting points the next morning it became clear that because time is money the workers had bodged together the shower and bent the glass walls...
Might have been important to add that in Germany you CAN deduct the interest for your property, if you rent it out (or plan to rent it out). The German system basically favours the building of houses with the intention to rent out units, not people buying houses for themselves. Which is part of the reason why there are so many smaller multi family houses with something between four and eight units. There was a time when building this kind of house was a good investment, you could life in one unit yourself and rent out the others, hence offsetting the costs considerably.
Great points! We mentioned that the interest cannot be deducted if inhabited by the owner, implying that it could be deducted if not inhabited by the owner. Our mistake for not making it more clear. Thank you!
And there was such thing as 7b-Abschreibung. That let you write off the value of the house. It was a tax incentive to get more people to become homeowners. The details escape me right now. But every potential homeowner in the 70s to 90s took advantage of that.
Costs for private housing are no longer tax deductible for some time now.
On the one hand, because you can finance the costs for energetic building measures with cheap government loans, on the other hand, as an owner/resident, you can now deduct other costs for tax purposes: painters, gardeners, electricians, conversions, extensions, energetic renovations (but only the craftsman costs/wages )
This procedure should favor the official award of contracts to companies. (Instead of doing it yourself or undeclared work"Schwarzarbeit")
@V 100 Eigenheimzulage was actually a thing until 2005. I remember my parents using it for the house we built in the 90s when interest rates for mortgages where at like 7% anual. However this is no longer a thing, unless you rent it out.
@@urlauburlaub2222 Please edit that again for clarity.
What you say does not only apply to Germany, in fact this applies to the whole of central Europe. You do notice differences in building styles and materials in the warmer and colder parts of Europe. I myself have built a single-family house on a piece of land of 16 acres. Europeans see this as an investment for their old age. The prices of the land and houses have risen enormously in recent years, it is no longer possible for many to build a house themselves. That's why so many people are renting now. In my case I am very happy that I built myself and not rent. My wife passed away April 2020, I just retired. If I had to rent now, I would not be able to pay this with my current income.
Grtz, from Belgium.
There is a cost in what you do at the moment. If you could not afford renting with your current income you can not afford to keep your house in check. This means that your house will gradually become more and more dilapidated. It looses value.
This is what your argument for building does not say. If you build a house it will not belong to you but to the bank (in the beginning). And if you do not pay for renovation on a regular basis you loose your investment.
Whether building or rentig is better is therefore a much more complicated question than it seems.
@@btmillack21 You're right, you need to maintain your home. But this costs much less than having to pay 900 euros in rent every month.
@@btmillack21 European construction can be so good that it lasts 25 years without any major investments or repair.
@@mcfermulen2693 It depends on the size and the area, here on the country side near Hameln rent is about 4.60€/m².
In America, I'm trying to buy a house to reduce cost. Rent has gone up a lot in my city. My 2 bedroom apartment (which was too small for us with boy and girl kids) was $1300 a month in 2017, but went up 10-12 percent per year, they wanted $2200 to renew in 2021. I ended up moving to another complex closer to downtown where I got a 3 bedroom for only $2000. But with rents going up 10-12 percent per year, I really like that getting a house means locking in monthly cost for years to come.
Here in germany contruction time went down a lot in the past maybe 2 decades. It basically comes down to using less water wherever possible. Less water means less time to cure and dry. 10 month on average is quite a good number.
by the way, loved to hear you say Kalksandstein and Wärmedämmverbundsystem ;-)
Great videos! I am an ex-pat American living in Hamburg for the last 40 some-odd years. I started this adventure in Freiburg, where I met my wife all those many years ago. So many memories when I watch.
One question for you: Are you planning on discussing the environmental aspects of housing? You already mentioned the higher energetic costs of “solid construction”, how about the choice of heating system, solar power, insulation levels, etc.? I know my sisters in Texas have huge homes with massive air conditioning units, lots of sun, but never considered solar power.
Love to hear your experiences and your take on the situation. Chers, Doc.
Missing a few points here. One is the cultural aspect between Germany, continental Europe vs anglo-US, and the notion of owning a house. My house is my castle. It's like a mantra in the US and UK, to get on the property latter... No one on continental Europe will look down on you because you rent or live in multifamily housing, apartment. As mentioned by another viewer, and very important, you are much better protected as a renter than in the US and UK. This is also seen from a practical reason, that if you rent, you have less issues to take care of vs owning. Rental properties are mostly available in multifamily houses. But also buying an apartment comes with less issues than owning a house. There is study saying that Germans rather put money into starting business than buying a property. And as you mentioned space is important. There is much less of it in Germany. Another point is that people don't move around as much in Germany and Europe in general vs the US. Buying a house is an investment and Germans tend to live in it longer. Another aspect is public transportation, European housing planing includes access to public transportation, hence you don't need a car. Actually the 3 big car manufacturers in the US lobbied public authorities in the 50s not to plan for public transport so people had to rely on cars to get around. Finally, the comment on sustainability is not quite correct. First of all, a solid house last much longer than a wooden one and in general German houses have better insulation and use less energy. Another is that when houses are demolished in the US mostly all materials are mixed and putt on landfill. In Germany often materials are separated and for instance, shingles are reused if in good condition..
Good points!
Ireland is the same we prefer ownership to renting but given our history that is not surprising
you guys do the best job about America vs Germany so far, thanks guys
great video! one (VERY) important reason for low homeownership you missed: It’s not just that many houses were destroyed in what now is Germany. there were also 16 Million (!) Germans that had to leave behind their homes (and basically everything that did not fit in a suitcase) in what is now part of Poland. obviously they did not have a house (anymore).
and with two world wars that brought about 2 or 3 complete currency resets including hyper inflation and all that good stuff it was also very difficult for Germans as a whole to accumulate wealth. A famously little known fact: while the average household income in Germany is actually much higher than in most of southern Europe, the (accumulated) wealth is actually higher in i.e. Italy and even Greece!
16 million is a biiiiig number to use just for expulsion from Poland.
German house market is nuts at the moment. When I bought my house in 2012 - a 140 sqm terraced end house (which was by the way built in 7 months) - it cost me 185,000 Euros (kitchen, tiled floor, carpets, wall painting, etc. included). Right now, it's estimated to be worth around 350,000 Euros. So, ten years ago was probably the best time to buy real estate in Germany. If you want to do it now, you're basically screwed. There are regions in Germany where even a head physician of a hospital won't be able to get a loan for financing a house.
Indeed... I am looking for building a house, land alone is 120-150k. in most regions and that is NOT in a city center or anything... and building new home some places offer service of providing consultant to find plot of land, that does not include auxilary connections ( sewage etc ) so the costs add up super fast... you end up with 185k just for land and the connections forget about having a home on top of that lol.
Im looking for a kw55 or 40, 40 plus would be hard to achieve for the budget im thinking. 400k max, just insanely hard... Very curious how much in a bit boonies ( 1h away from Munich ) how much did their home cost for how much sqm.
Yes, we built 9 years ago. The new lots just a street over are so much more expensive now, never mind the cost of building. Still, the 50 lots that are currently up for sale, had over 1000 applicants. We really feel blessed.
@@PeinTech Ok, Munich is with its surroundings a lot more expensive than other parts of Germany...
Same here. We've bought our plot in 2019 in greater Hamburg (in the rural outskirts, not the centre!)
The prices for a square meter went up from around 170€ up to about 220€ now. And if you take a look 10km towards Hamburg it goes crazy: 300-400€/m².
But since money is cheap nowadays, I know some people (not doctors or CEOs) who go for it nevertheless. In fact some don't even plan to get the house paid within their lifetime, but to inherit the debt.
I actually hope that I will be able to call it "my" house someday 🤗
@@JockelsEleven 400 ... you're generous - its more like 500+ thats not counting the fact that they typically require completely new connections as well or worse, connections to be redone and demolition of old house...
In most of the NRW area you either find similar situation ( very old house requiring removal + cost of land ) or land that is quite out there remote in smaller towns which also require new connections to be done.
Either way you end up paying big money these days. When the house costs the same as the land... its pretty worrisome for future generations.
Your german pronounciation is really coming along amazingly.
German construction generally really is about being built to last, my grandfather luckily didn't do much renovating in our old family home, it was my grandmother's family farm from 1797 and while it was an odd time capsule it was real solid and we could sell it really well to a roofer with a large family that already bought a few old homes to sell them after renovation who also brought the farming property back to life the way it deserved. We now live in a new red brick house in the north that really is energy efficient and economical but still has the old charm and we love the floor heating and not having to be half trained at everything to not constantly call in our handy man because grandpa liked to do a lot of handywork himself in the newer family home and we had to have it fixed later to really be safe for everyone.
As an Interior Design Student in Germany I often watch CZcams videos and Netflix Shows about Interior Design. Most of them actually are American. Seeing those shows made me realize how different Interior Design is being approached in the US.
I would love to hear what topics were part of your studies and what you learned to become a good Interior Designer.
I wouldn’t call it interior design what they have 😂 their choices of furniture and materials is just so much worse and so much below our standard and what we are used to in Germany. they just don’t know how it could be done. everyone is doing the same thing. They have no sense for design and quality imo…
@@p__jay this is such an arrogant and ill informed take on american interior design. just because we do it differently than germany, doesn't mean it's less than. yours ain't better than the next place
I love the "fachwerkhaus" style.. the house we bought is around 400 years old and originally was a barn and housed pigs aswell as cows .. .. it got converted to a house around 60 years ago and intensly renovated around 15 years ago..... aaand now iam subscriber number 13.401 xD
This channel is highly underrated, they make great videos with a complete holistic point of view, I hope more people discover this channel
Wow thank you so, so much. We are just blown away by the positive response we've had in the past 9 months and are thrilled to see what the future holds. ❤️
Excellent video! As a real estate professional in South Florida (and having family living in Germany and the Netherlands), I am always comparing the housing market between Europe and the US. I love this new housing series you are producing!
That's fantastic! Great to see audience members back from our "home" side of the Atlantic. Although I imagine Miami is much much warmer than Germany at the moment.
Hi. Interesting to hear your thoughts on this. Funny side note: when I was an exchange student in the us (a long time ago) I used to drive by a construction site on the way home for a while. So eventually I asked my host brother if he knew what film they are going to shoot once the set building is finished. I suppose there are three big reason why there so much houses build after the 70s (massive growth of the us population, while stable in germany) and the construction method (there is a strong movement to warmer regions in the us, like texas, florida, california/in germany when you build a house, who are most likely want to stay in it (in the region) for the rest of your life.
I would have loved to see his face when you asked that... ;-)
Good video. Maybe mention modern German wood construction homes as well. A side-by-side comparison to US timber homes would be nice. German wood construction homes are still considered solid construction to my knowledge, and they’re gaining in popularity due to their sustainability (and the fact that it airs itself out). Maybe explain why that is and the difference in price compared to a German concrete house
Not to mention that not all homes in the US are "stick built". One of the fastest growing segments is ICF block construction. Not to mention that the average US home is more energy efficient than those built even just a decade ago. The building industry in America is ever changing for the better. Will our homes last centuries? Who knows, anything that is taken care of will certainly last longer than something neglected.
@@TheLanceFrazier 99% of US homes are “stick built.”
The house I'm living in for rent was build in 1907 and I love it. It survived the bombing in 1944 the house next to us burned down. The walls are made of bricks and the floors made of wood and clay. If you walk around every second step will make a different sound. It seems to be alive. 🙂
Congrats to your own house! 👍
In our rural swabian area most old houses from 1800 to 1950 have a basement made of stone and a wooden framework for the upper stories. That is normally filled with straw/clay. Almost all old houses you see here in the centers of the villages are build like that. Even if you do not see the wooden frames.
What an awesome, informative video!
I don't want to name drop, but one of my best, long time friends, happens to be a third generation knighted architect (I am simply extremely proud of him!). His grandfather was an architect who earned his knighthood for his work in the pre-war development of my home tome Rotterdam. His father was knighted because of his work for rebuilding Rotterdam after WO II. My friend is knighted because he is worldwide known for his architectual work in renovations. His architect business is totally in renovating existing buildings into sustainable offices and house. I dine a lot at his house, and have met a lot of architects in the past decades (I am in banking, cash management myself).
Houses in the Netherlands are built solid, so concrete, bricks and morter. My house was finished in 1938, so shortly before WO II started.
In front of my house, in from of Rotterdam Central Station (I live five minutes walk behind it) is actually the fire border (vuurgrens). It is the circle within Rotterdam, that was completely bombed 14 May 1940. Everything within our center was built after the war, explaining why the inner city of Rotterdam is completely different to the inner city of Amsterdam. They used to be similar, but Amsterdam was never bombed.
When I see photo's after the bombardement, I could actually see my appartement on these photo's, looking into the chambers that became my bedroom 63 years later.
I am in the middle of a house renovation. It takes a lot longer than renovating American houses, because the walls (which I had moved and renewed) were all solid. So it was an enormous amount of bricks et cetera, that had to be dragged out (from the third floor) before the new construction could be set up.
I noticed that most/all American houses are made from wood. Can be built quickly, but they are noisy. Also, whenever a fire happens (I once had to flee a house, because a fire happend in the basement) or a flood, these houses are whiped away.
Anyway ....
Love your video's! Keep up the good work.
Being a Dutchman with a sister living in Germany, I visit Germany frequently. I love Germany too!
I love your videos guys! Keep going with the nice work.
Thank you for going into the history and the solid construction does help the look of the house. Putting things up on the wall is harder though. Could you maybe talk about how long Germans keep their house and the inner migration patterns compared to those in the US who may move around a lot and buy a property where they move to.
YES! We plan on talking about this in the next video, especially how many homes Americans buy in their lifetime. It is so interesting how when I bought my first house in the US, everyone congratulated me on my "starter home"... Inherently implying that I would move up the property ladder. We want to explore this phenomenon and the prevailing homeownership permanence in Germany.
@@TypeAshton Building a home in Germany is seens as a once in a lifetime undertaking. Not moving so much due to job offers, less hire and fire, staying with an employer for, hopefully, forever are sociological and social factors that come to bear.
Many of the older homes especially in the villages which were if at all only accidentally hit in WWII were used by subsequent generations, the claim that much was build to last lives up to it, no matter if housing or e.g. buildings needed for farming built decades ago. Yes those buildings are not necessarily fit for modern ideas of how you use space or even how it feels (usually cramped because of smaller rooms with lower ceilings), but they are reliable.
@@user-sm3xq5ob5d tops, my parents are looking into buying more property and would be willing to make a big change but foundations or grondflor walls were never in their preview.
@@TypeAshton that means house jumping!
That was really interesting, and you did so much research on this - you can't but notice that architecture is your field of expertise, Ashton!
Germany or Europe in general is definitely an interesting place to be when you are an expert on architectural history.
A propos German houses are built to last: I've grown up in (and actually currently own) a half-timbered farm house that's around 300 years old. The ground floor is constructed by huge sandstone blocks, so the walls are incredibly thick. Sandstone contains quite an amount of moisture, so the ground floor feels a bit clammy and is prone to mold when uninhabited, but on the other hand, those walls work like air-conditioning. Temperatures in the living room never raise above 22°C, even if it's as hot as 35°C outside. On the other hand, you can heat the room up to 30°C easily in winter using the tiled stove, no matter how cold it might be outside. That's really fascinating. The rest of the house, the upper floors and the barn, are made from timber-framework filled with straw and clay. I don't know why, but the atmosphere in these rooms is incredibly homely. Although the ceilings are quite low, it always feels warm and airy and never gets damp at all. And even if it gets hot in the summer, it never feels als sticky as in modern houses. In comparison to my childhood home, modern houses made from concrete always give me a feeling of being trapped. I really wish people wouldn't forget this old building technique.
Clay and straw -- or in other words, adobe -- is a cheap but efficient insulator, because it encapsulates a lot of small air bubbles. But it also is a great thermal mass that helps mitigate temperature fluctuations.
From personal experience I can state that adobe walls have far better thermal properties than wall from burnt [solid] bricks (though the latter are better for load bearing). The absolute worst are hollow bricks, because of the thermal bridging,
Such an interesting topic. I learn so much from you guys . Looking forward to to your next instalments. Thank you
Hi there! So glad you enjoyed it. ❤️
Love the content. Was thinking of this the other week visiting family in Stuttgart. I love German houses, especially the slanted roof top floor units!
I'm a happy renter and living in the same apartment for 18 years now. It is just a three story house and my landlords living at the ground floor. Because I'm having a very good relationship with them they actually lowered my rent, to keep me here, when I wanted to move out for a cheaper apartment 😃. I'm only paying about 390€ for 70sq here in Freiburg City, which is a steal. Recently they build new single homes just across the street and the cost for each of them was around 800k €, and they are no luxury homes, just fairly standard houses 🤯. Even if I would live here for 80 years I wouldn't have paid off half of one of those houses 🙈. Housing market is just nuts 😂.
The housing market in Freiburg really is crazy. I know often the larger cities get a lot of the press, but Freiburg really does have a very pricey housing market. It is in part why Jonathan and I bought a house outside of the city-proper.
@@TypeAshton Like anywhere prices are based on supply and demand. People are retiring or wanting to live in that area with the best weather in Germany. And more people today want to live in some kind of city.
Coming from Sweden and lived in the US for a total of 10 years Two years in a smakligs town in Oklahoma. Only tornado safe building was from the 1920s an in concrete. It was built at the same time as large grain silos. Looking at relatively new apartment complexes and talking to people in the construction and housing business I was told no apartment complexes were built to last more than apr 30 years. Living in a Dallas Subutex for 8 years I was chocked over the speed houses poppers up, almost over night, and the poorly built apartments! It was like noone with actually skulle built it using inproper materials and scrap. Both places I always felt like I lived in a cardboard box. This in tornado alley!
It shocks us now going back to the states and seeing the quality of some of the homes. Living there, it seems normal.
After having renovated our about 60 year old house (completely renewed the original water infrastructure…they used zinc galvanised iron pipes back then… 🤯 🤦♂️, though it should be said the pipes still worked well enough) I have come to the conclusion that yes, I love the solid construction style, but I am happy to trade some living space so the infrastructure such as piping and cabling can be hidden behind a drywall rather than inside the actual solid walls and is thus easily accessible if ever the need arises…
Or make them otherwise easily accessible without having to break open solid concrete wall.
Great job folks :). It was fun listing to all of the stats in each category. Two years ago my family and I had built a house here in the states and it took exactly seven months from start to finish. I am enjoying watching all of your awesome videos ;).
That's awesome! Thank you so much for watching! We're glad you're enjoying the content.
Hey guys, one aspect for renting are the prices of land. In some regions you have to pay up to 2000€ per squaremeter just for the land excluding the costs for building the house. If you buy a house in those regions you easily pay up to 1 Million Euro for a normal single family house. To get a credit is only possible if you have great income and no other debts. That’s another aspect: if you want to buy a house, you need a credit plus own capital and no debts history at all.
Great content once again.I really like the set-up of your videos, they are structured and clearly made and easy to follow even if English is not your mother tongue.
To your question: My father bought an apartment back in the year 2000 for tax reasons just as Jonathan mentioned.I moved to that apartment so he could save on taxes and I benefited from the lower than locally asked rent.Fast forward several years and came to the point to decide if we wanted to extend the loan or pay off the remaining amount.Even with attractive interest rates it was no choice for us so we paid off and are rent free now.
Btw...Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Doktorarbeit!
That's amazing! Congratulations on paying off the home and having that financial freedom. And thank you so much for the well wishes of congratulations.
For german families it is also THE Dream to Owen a house, but I think it‘s again a matter of space. In Amerika you have such a lot of space and landscape, it‘s no problem to find a yard for your family. In Germany you have to wait, until a community prepares an area for building and allowing houses
I think it's great that you go into this topic in such depth and I'm already looking forward to your next videos.
In addition to the availability of various resources for building materials, I also see the harsher climatic conditions as a further reason for the solid construction of German/Northern European houses.
Germany is between 47° - 54° North, this is translated between Vancouver and Prince George. In the Black Forest you live in the region with the mildest climate in all of Germany. There is also the north, with its coastal climate, lots of wind and rain, or the east, which struggles with Siberian air masses for many weeks in winter.
The USA is much more southerly and therefore there are completely different climatic conditions for house building. (I remember the constant YT videos about the lack of air conditioning as a culture shock for Americans in Germany)
Its a huge difference. As a German I can for sure see myself living in an American neighborhood like you show at the beginning. Problem in Germany is, that land is waaaay more expensive. And so are building cost, as houses, as you know, are built in a much more solid way than the typical American houses. They of course last longer and we dont have to worry about any weather or storm, but I am sometimes shocked for how little you can buy an entire villa with large pools and gardens in the US. Especially in some states.
That was super interesting! I'd love to hear more about the buildings and architecture, especially since you seem to have a way above average understanding in both from both these countries! Fingers crossed your home doesn't get delayed any further! One thing I heard other people say that in the US in many places you're actually not allowed to build multi-party homes, that is, you must build single family homes with a set amount of space around it. I'm not sure where this is exactly the case but it sounds like that could also be a contributing factor to those differences.
Yes so it's a feature of some local housing ordinances... they will also have regulations on how much green space you must have between the house and the street... one town I worked with in the US actually had a regulation on the "percentage minimum" of brick a house had to have on the exterior cladding.
Previously watched your video about AC and heating and now got fixed on, you're research is impressive!
Awesome! We're so glad you enjoy the videos!
@@TypeAshton One thing I've wondered the entire time: Dear Ashton, has your name often been mistaken for a man's name in Germany?
Engineers and Architects make such great storytellers, an beautiful videos! 👍
We also have timber frame houses in Germany! But the walls are *much* thicker than in the US - and stuffed with insulation.
Very interesting video.
Some things I want to point out from my Italian perspective (that is quite similar to German one).
We generally prefer to live in apartments in multi apartment buildings (blocks) because: it's way cheap, it's more convenient to mantain as regards repairs, lawn moaning (if you have one that is shared with other people living in the block), cleaning... because these services are shared so you pay only a proportion of the bill.
Houses are made of concrete and bricks so noise from your neigbour are quite reduced.
Furthermore we generally don't mind living near other people.
By the way it's wrong to say that we all live in blocks. As you already said you have plenty of choice of house types. Single family houses are generally much more expensive that a similar size apartment.
Single family houses are very close to each other, compared to what I see in videos regarding American suburbs.
Furthermore: we always (and I stress it: always) put fences to limit properties, but I see that most American houses have their front yard (or lawn) directly accessible from the road? This is very strange to me.
100 square meters is considered an average family size for middle class family (up to 4 people).
In small town or in the countryside generally houses and apartments are a bit bigger (due to the lower cost).
Another thing that I find very strange in American single family houses, compared to European ones: American houses are essentially a big garage with a little door besides to enter your home! We try to hide the garage, in the back, or better we build it UNDERNEATH the house! Having a big garage door in the front is so ugly!!!
In Italy the percentage of people owning their own apartment or house is quite large, compared to other European countries. It's a cultural thing. We generally prefer buying than renting (and not only as regards homes).
Only the interest of your first home loan are tax deductible.
Generally the houses are passed to sons and grandosons and we tend to renovate them (or renovate and then sell them) because a brick and concrete house will last easily over 100 years. The government subsidizes with a tax deduction part of the cost of renovation, expecially if it is aimed to improve the energy saving by insulation, or modernization of heating systems.
Maybe I missed something as you guys are just consumers of homes and not builders. I built my home (myself with family and friends ). I am a Mechanical Engineer (BSME) as well. A colleague and I bought 6 acres of land in the Chicago suburbs, subdivided it into two lots in 1988. We designed and built our home from wood (stick construction) with brick veneer (28000). We cleared the lot, had the hole dug and basement poured. We hammered every nail in the house and in fact I designed and built the parallel cord floor trusses before we started construction. I wired the house (all in conduit), insulated the walls R25 (much inner than you show) fitted all the plumbing (copper for the supply and PVC/cast iron for the waste), then hung all the drywall. The house is 3200 square feet with a 3200 s.f. walkout basement. All in (1989 dollars) $160k, including the 3 acres. You could be living downstairs ( completely finished with full bath and steam shower) and I would not know it. You have lowered expectations (which is fine) since you moved to Germany. I wish you joy in your new home, but just realize you can’t compare it with what you could have had in a less regulated environment. BTW, I’m now 66 and still living in the same house. The landscaping is being redone now because it has aged out, but the house is still original. Drop by if you head back to Chicago.
Hallo Black Forest Family,
I enjoyed listening to your video.Thank you.
Maybe we can share a lot of our future hopes and needs. It feels so good having you US Americans here in the Black Forest. Welcome.
I'm from Switzerland which has kept out of both World Wars and I can confirm that things are very similar here and I think in large parts of Europe.
In Switzerland, wages are considerably higher and land is scarcer and hence more expensive, so buildings are even more expensive than in Germany. Since that is the case, more high quality materials are used here as well since it makes no sense to have to pay a high price anyway but then to use mediocre materials (might as well pay even a bit more but get good quality stuff).
Also, banks insist on demanding 20% of the house value to be financed by the buyer in order to get a mortgage. Therefore, 80% of Swiss live in rental apartments as compared to self owned homes.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing!
@@TypeAshton I think in the US you can mortgage your house over 100% of its current value. Hence the sub-prime crisis.
Another very interesting video. Something to include or mention is that loans for German houses are not „walk away“ loans. Yes the property is collateral, but you are personally responsible for the difference if the bank doesn‘t cover the principle. The differences in taxes, e.g. Property Taxes are also significant. Also many suburbs have HOAs , which can have strange rules. German condominiums have Eigentümerversammlungen, which are often lots of „fun“.
typically 9-15% indeed. but thats something that depends if its new construction you save between 2.98 to 7% which is typically commission, so thats always nice to save , especially on crazy 6 figure amounts.
Great points! We will dig a bit deeper into this in our upcoming video regarding costs.
It might be the topic, but Jonathan: I feel you. Ashton just seems to outsmart everyone. And how driven you are Ashton. All the things you analyse, summarize and make accessible to us, your audience is simply mind blowing. And that is only the stuff for the channel. I feel you are the same with any other topic. I am deeply impressed. Regards from Hamburg.
I'm a Clerk of Works in the UK, so its great to find a comparison video where the whys and wherefores are explained.
What made me want to comment though was the comment about shutting the site down for a month because...ahem.
I called into a site about a month ago and asked where Bob was?
"Oh he tested positive this morning so we told him he had to drive the fork lift to keep him away from people". It was great to see everyone just going about their work.
Its August now so I hope you're settled in and German construction firms have started to make their "Bobs" drive the fork lifts.
The "solid construction" thing has also a "status" component. Half-timbered houses can also be very longlived (if well-built with high-quality hardwood), but in all times rich people preferred to built in stone, at least the lower stories. Half-timbered houses were quicker and cheaper to build, so they gave less prestige. Therefore many half-timbered houses were plastered over, especially since the 17th century (which was not always a good thing, it caused sometimes the wood to rot in the dark). With the industrialization cities grew, as did the demand on affordable houses for the workers. In many places this demand was met with tenement houses (called Mietskasernen = rental barracks in German), but around the dawn of the 20th century social reformist ideas led to the construction of row houses and worker's housing estates - non-detached single family homes with small yards before and behind every one. That trend continued up to the 1930s, but the destructions and the housing shortage after WW II put that mostly to an end. Building multi-family, multi-storey houses was quicker, cheaper and simpler to organize - and those were usually built from stone and concrete. But the self-owned single family home remained not only the American, but also the German dream. Whoever could afford it (after the economy recovered), built his own house, and that was also subsided by federal and state governments. Around the bigger cities and flourishing towns estate prices were high to begin with and continued to rise (and for new housing development you need also land and money for new streets and other infrastructure). Many people could only afford non-detached houses - duplex or semi-detached houses became a typical sight. The skills to built solid with timber were mostly lost then, however (except in some regions e.g. at the border to Austria), and fire protection as well as structural design regulations did in many cases impede timber construction. But this is about to change - as does the urge to own your own house with your own yard around it. Younger people often prefer to live in an urban environment, even in a multi-storey house, instead of far out in the countryside with only fragmentary public transport, and many young professionals even prefer the flexibility which comes with renting instead of owning.
Need to rewatch the big short now xD
Interesting video! :)
Oh man we ALMOST put that clip in this video. SUCH a good movie.
@@TypeAshton A person of true culture. 🎩
(Also I was kinda shocked how easy that whole house of cards [pun intended] was being built and smashed afterwards)
Really cool content! Looking forward to the follow ups.
Thank you for watching!
Interesting, durable,thermal,,sound fireproof, solid centenary lasting , and a good sales return rendered.
Great to see you guys tapping deeply into your professional expertise. Very good video - would you mind looking at the UK as well?
The scary part on home ownership in the US is that the creation of suburbs is a ponzy scheme with new suburban areas meant to finance the maintenance of the existing ones. The tax income from new wealthy residents are meant to cover expenses for infrastructure maintenance. However to get new residents you need more suburban areas and therefore you have to maintain more roads, etc. Once the commune can't pay for infrastructure maintenance, the attractiveness of the area and hence price of the houses drop and with it, lower income residents will move in, paying even less tax making it even harder to maintain the area. Repeat until the system breaks down.
Thank you so much. We're really glad you enjoyed it. Doing the research for this one was a lot of fun for us.
@@TypeAshton are you planning to cover the implications of the building preferences on the community as well in this series (I.e. car centric vs walkable neighborhoods). I know you partly covered that in you supermarket video, but it might be interesting from the housing perspective.
@@TypeAshton If you are interested in the differences in housing as a result of urban planning you should check the channel 'not just bikes'. This channel is run by a Canadian living in the Netherlands, but he covers urban planning much broader than just these two countries and has made a great effort in explaining differences between urban planning in North America and Europe. Not only are these videos very educational, the're also very entertaining. Maybe you could start with this video:
czcams.com/video/CCOdQsZa15o/video.html
I remember seeing for the first time how an American just rearranged the rooms in their house.. like just take out the wood frame of the bathroom and move it over a few rooms.. it was so crazy to me hahaha
Also, and I’m sure you’ll be mentioning this, it also is due to space. We just don’t have space for everyone to have a single family home. But what thats has cause is that rn I’m looking at apartments and I realize buying an apartment for 200k will have you paying 500-700€ in mortgage payments while renting the same place is also 500-700€.
So at that point it’s simply the convenience of having a Hausmeister and being able to move more often since you’re not bound to the home. But I really wonder how renting is in any way effective if you work full time.
As a Uni student of course you don’t have the steady income to sustain a loan but once you have that steady income I really don’t see the reason to rent anymore but maybe I’m missing parts of actual home ownership in my naive mind rn haha
Yes! We hope to discuss this exact topic on Sunday's video! Great points.
Well... that's the point. You see it from a student's perspective.
Here's a look from a 4 head family.
Renting a 100-120 m² 4 room apartment costs around 1200-1400€
I build a house and I'm paying 1400€ every month for that house. Loan, electricity... all costs combined.
It's a 180 m² 5 room house with a 300m² property.
Owning an apartment isn't worth it really... so you rent it
Owning a house on the other hand...
Especially if it's a multi family house
You buy a house with like 3-6 apartments and live there with family. And split the costs with them. Or you rent the apartments you don't need and get money back.
Thank you for educating us on this.
Another aspect of why there are so many multifamily houses at least in the area where I was born and raised is, that may houses that were build after WW2 were small single family houses, but by the time the kids (my parent’s generation) got old enough, some went out to build their own houses and the kids who stayed rebuild the old houses to a dual family house. That happened to a lot if not almost all of the houses in my street were I lived as a kid. Even the house of my grandparents where my Family lived was so small, that we had to use our grandparents bathtub and our toilet was at the bottom of our house‘s staircase. When I was 10 my parents started to add almost a whole new house to the old one. Same as our neighbors did, and their neighbors did and so on and so forth.
And when it comes to the sound proof effect of solid concrete constructions I can confirm, while living in a multi-family house it feels sometimes as if I live alone. Only some times I can hear someone at the staircase if they are talking loud or when my neighbor above me really pumps up the volume of his stereo. But as I said, most of the time I really don‘t hear anything from my neighbors. OK the vacuum and the hammer drill can be annoying. 😉
Part of the reason why renting is more common in Germany is that tenants have much more rights than in other countries. E.g. it´s almost impossible for a landlord to kick a tenant out (unless he stops paying rent for more than 2 months) and rent increases are regulated.
This is a strong reason why so many people rent. We will be tackling this subject as well in our upcoming series on the subject.
Rent control can backfire though. We are dealing with this as one of the reasons for the severe housing shortage in the Bay Area. When people get into a rent controlled apartment, they never leave, which keeps their rent low but drives up rents for newcomers. Then developers don’t want to build rental housing for fear they won’t be able to recoup their costs and instead build condos. Which further tightens the supply . . . It’s become a huge political issue in our state.
I think cost is a very important aspect regarding the reason that a lot of Germans rent. As an extreme example, an Apartment in (or around) Munich costs at least 10K per m² at the moment. Many other large cities such as Berlin and Hamburg are not far behind.
I’m glad you said “soapbox “, hit the nail on the head.
I'm not an architect but my family has built one house when i was a kid and completely renovated another some 25 years later and it's really fun to build something solid with your own hands!
18:55 "Kalksandstein" is cool stuff to work with when you need really stable constructions for i.e. large windows but there is also "Gasbeton" that you can cut with a handsaw and bodge together easily when you just want to create a quick wall or a shower that's half glas and half stone. Then there is "Gipskarton" which is used for drywalling or suspended ceilings that look nice with embedded lights.
When it comes to deducting your mortgage from your taxes, it is possible when you rent the place and create space for somebody else.
Nice video. Looking forward to seeing your place when it's finished. Freiburg is a nice town with a good local brew (beer, not coffee) and a few decent golf courses in the vicinity.
One thing to the "solid construction" houses is that they can endure much harder storms than wooden frame (especially the light wooden frame that US tends to build - Scandinavia used wooden frame like 500 years ago but that is a class of its own, complete tree trunks in the structure).
Concrete CO2 footprint is a big issue. I really wish people would nourish more forest than what they chop off because "it's cheap". Yeah sure, for those who cut them off it"s cheap.
Cheap means chopping off trees in the Amazon forest... US uses so much resources from the earth and pumps out so much pollution at the same time than any other countries in the world.
@@User-vz4xm AND CHINA?
I'm currently living next to a development area. There are different lots given to different developers, who each build a score of similar houses and then sell them to individuals. Their styles and approaches differ, but they show it's quite easy to do it within six months from scratch. And then there are the module units - five units make one house, delivered with finished interior, 14 houses erected in 14 days.
I love the way she says Wärmedämmverbundsystem😂
Lovely Video as always!
I'm not going to lie.... that was one of the tougher German words I've tackled recently. 😬😬😬
Switzerland wasn't bombed in WW2, yet it's pretty much the same here, and generally in urban Europe. Multi family housing isn't an invention of post war Germany, born out of necessity. They simply rebuilt it as it was before.
I think, there's a different urban tradition in Europe, revolving around traditional European urban lifestyle, where people live and work in the inner city since basically roman times. Even today most European cities have a medieval core, where people live, work and socialize in very close proximity. In Germany that's not always visible, because the actual medieval buildings were bombed, but they rebuilt them to the same housing/business/social life multi purpose functionality. Hence no skyscrapers and skylines in Europe. However, in Europe these activities may all happen in the same block or even in the same building, but they are strictly separated timewise. No socializing at work, no work related topics while socializing, let alone at home. Taking work home would basically be seen as incompetence. In medieval times they had no cars or trains, and it was easier to heat compact entities, so city planing, architecture and lifestyles evolved alongside, leading up to what we see today.
As population grew, more housing was required. Since people want to live close to the city center, single family homes could only be a small and very recent part of the solution when it comes to cities, because they require so much space that they soon are too far away from downtown. Multi story multi family buildings developed and existed since roman ages.
Owning a home isn't a goal in itself in Europe. People buy a single family house for a reason, often because they want to grow their own veggies in their garden, etc. Many who could afford a house still prefer to rent for practical reasons, more flexibility, or because they don't want the extra work and hassle.
American cities largely evolved alongside the car, hence the outcome. Building large houses, roads, connecting motorways and big cars that require large amounts of petrol was and is a giant credit injection stimulus package, creating wealth for large portions of the population.
I experienced urban life in the US as very different from Europe. Housing is separated from business and social life, and the various social groups segregate into different neighborhoods. Social life is mostly centered around business related activities. For what little time they get to spend outside of work, they like to retreat to their homes in a neighborhood reflecting their backgrounds, and spend it within their family or family-like structures. The work-socializing-home boundaries are very fuzzy. People therefore seek spatial separation.
I agree with you 100%.
There is another way this multi-family housing arose.
Here in Croatia, many of the so called "multi-family" houses are actually inhabited by different branches of the same family. People tend to upgrade their existing homes, rather than purchasing new ones and moving. Therefore, occasionally, a person would get rich and build an extra floor to his house. Then, when he would die, his children would divide the inherited house, living one on each floor. Then they might use the wealth they acquire to further expand their house and so on. There are houses in my neighborhood with 3 or 4 floors owned by such families.
Before houses farming estates functioned the same way. This is why many older neighborhoods and streets with houses in Zagreb have names that are just plural forms of surnames.
We bought our apartment last year after years of renting it. We don't want to move and the interest rate is as high as the rent. The price was fair as well. But this will only be possible if you have enough income. We are at sub 20 percent of our net income with the rate so easily manageable. That is not the norm here in Germany and most houses and apartments are far beyond 200k (nearing 500k mostly) so those numbers would be much higher.
Anyway, renting is kinda a rabbid hole. It's easy to get into and damn hard to get out. :(
Your videos are so awesome. They are so rich of useful information, well organized (maybe a German influence here) and really interesting points of view. Well done. Brazilian greetings from Coburg - Bavaria =)
Thank you so much!
I just love the way both of you moderate together... It's very pleasant..
Thank you!
This may be not important, but the usual German solid build house will never 'change it's own street address' after/during a storm. Even if you live in 'Germany's tornado alley'. Scenes from America where you can see streets upon streets with the house gone and and just the foundation left are highly unlikely in Germany.
I wouldn't bet on the resilience of German houses. In the tornado last summer in the Czech Republic, even massive houses did not withstand. And the construction there is comparable to Germany.
@@user-fb5lj9cz5l I never claimed that German houses would stand unharmed.
Yes, a real US F5 Tornado would probably 'destroy a house' here.
But 'destroy' meaning here more like 'unsuitable/unsafe to life in' or 'has to be leveled'.
But I have yet to see a whole residential area (of brick homes) in Europe to be LEVELED (meaning no wall left standing) by a storm.
Also I haven't seen here that a whole house got picked up by a tornado only to be found (in more or less one piece) a few streets further away.
@@user-fb5lj9cz5l I guess this is not good point.... As Czech I can say this tornado was really really rare in Europe conditions, it's considered that last tornado with same f lvl was 1000 years ago at Prague. In eurepe we have tornados but only f1-2 mainly. So this solid type of house would loose its roof or windows but that's it.
Get back to us when a F5 tornado has a direct hit on one of those homes.
@@dannynone2784 A regular build German house may be damaged beyond repair after a F5, but it won't be gone like a regular American one.
My house was build in 1907 and the outer brick walls are 50cm thick… Without the insulation😅
changing something later in a house made out of bricks/concrete isn‘t that difficult with the right tools, so don‘t worry about changing something in your house later on :)
Where did i put my sledgehammer again?
This is basically the same in all central europe, not just in Germany my house had the same walls it was built in 1930, although we had very small rental market most of us are the owners.
@@hmcredfed1836 No need for a sledgehammer. Für hanging a picture a normal hammer and nails still work. On the bricks, concrete etc on the walls there is a layer of plaster and that is stable enough for nails. In some modern houses they don't use plaster they use drywall for the last layer because it's faster. For hanging cupboards and other heavy things you drill a hole and use screw anchors. No need to search for the frame to be sure it's stable enough. Just don't use a regular power drill if it's concrete, use a pneumatic power drill. And in modern houses they put tubes in the walls for the electric cables where you can add additional cables without problems.
@@seanthiar A sledgehammer probably wouldn't even be all that useful. You need the right tools, not the big tools.
@@hmcredfed1836 😆
Danke schon! Sehr interessant! I am American and I have always tried to learn all I can from Germans, this video is a tour-de-force! There is so much to respect in the german traditions and also in american traditions. And even better when we can each learn from the other. 😊
Sehr guter Beitrag, danke! Alles Gute für Euch!!💖😄
That's an interesting deap-dive. What concerns me the most about single family houses still growing bigger is the encreased CO2-emissions for heating and cooling an those ever-growing houses. I was hoping the recent trend of tiny houses was also rubbing off on "normal sized" houses making people realize that a needessly big house just means more area to vacuum clean etc.
Yes this is true. The KfW subsidy has been a nice motivation in Germany to at least build efficient homes. Things like this can help.
@@TypeAshton Well it used to be :(. Let's hope our coalition will manage to avert the housing crisis here. Plenty people want to be build self-sufficient houses, but it's not just yet promoted. With subsidised loands from KFW running out, that may change. If only 10% of the population can afford to buy houses, the situation should definitely change.
specially on heating and cooling: there was a study where they compared tiny-houses to well build "normal" houses with proper isolation..
on a tiny-house the isolation is always very small..
result: tinyhouses are very inefficient when it comes to heating and cooling..
some need more energy for there 25 squaremeters than a well isolated, passiv-house with 200 squaremeter !
of course. building is another thing, building a big house produces much more CO2, specially when using concrete
In your considerations, I would like to mention the approximately 14 million expellees from the former eastern German territories who, after 1945, also poured into the then badly destroyed Federal Republic. Before the war, 17 million Germans lived in the Baltic states, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania and East Prussia, who had lived there for centuries but were expelled after the war. I can understand that, the expellees see it differently to this day. Building land had to be created quickly, i.e. the rubble had to be cleared and construction had to be carried out quickly. When I went to school in the 1970s, the last people in my town were being moved from emergency shelters and shanty towns to normal rented apartments.
The comparison of Germany with the USA is not only lagging because of the non-comparable spatial extent of the USA, but even if you compare Germany with other European countries, the number of homeowners here is lower than, for example, in the so-called "poor EU south" such as Italy or Greece.
German here. I lived in 4 different Houses in my life. One was 130 Years old, one was 250 years old, one was 80 years old, and the newest one is from 1964. (and i consider it as a modern high tech one)
Great topic. Can't wait for the next episodes...
Thank you! We're so glad you enjoyed it!
An important part of the reason for the amount of big single family housing with a yard and picket fence is also zoning.
The types of housing that's common in most of Europe is actually illegal to build in most of the US.
I would love to talk about zoning in an upcoming video. It was a big factor in my dissertation in the production of low-income housing which is also multi-family.
@@TypeAshton Gratulation for your PHD 👏
Zoning? Wie Ghettoisierung? Hat man hier leider in vielen Städten auch gemacht - was viele Probleme schafft, die dann kaum gesehen werden. Aus den Augen aus dem Sinn!
And the other way around is also true: A normal US home would never get permitted to be built in Germany, starting with energy efficiency which is mostly independent of zoning, but we do have lots of regulations as well on what/how you're allowed to build. As a matter of fact, even if you're not immediately affected by zoning, you'll still have to architect a house so it will "blend in" with the neighborhood. Otherwise you won't get a permit.
@@smoerrebroedroempoempoem7799 The German rules for blending in seem rather relaxed compared to the Netherlands. If I go to any newly build residential area, I see a very wild mix of styles. Each house is well done and beautiful in it's own way, but together it hurts the eye. This would never be allowed in the Netherlands. I find the Dutch regulations too strict, but in Germany I feel a bit more guidance would not be so bad
@haren ter berge It really depends; some areas are rather relaxed in what they prescribe, others will be extremely strict, and of course there are also whole neighborhoods done by a single developer that will be exactly identical across tens and sometimes even hundreds of dwellings. One way or another, I do prefer the freedom to make your own home stand out from the crowd. Don't we all? :-)
Even interior drywall is INSULATED in Germany! For soundproofing. I've never seen that in the US. When someone there farts in the toilet, the neighbour three streets away can still hear it.
Highly interesting and informative, thank you very much for this lesson!👍
This couldn’t be a better topic for you to take a deep dive into, Ashton! You must’ve been geeking out while doing the research. So well done!
Hi Sara! Thank you! This certainly was "in my wheelhouse" much like your math, engineering, and education video really resonated with yours and Kevin's interests. It really is a lot of fun when the CZcams World and the professional world collide. ❤️
As a German, I have to intervene again briefly here. Please don't be mad, but it's not very well researched. The film gives the impression that the war with its devastation in Germany made renting apartments in Germany popular. And that's not true. Many small towns hardly suffered from the air raids during the war. My home town is in Schleswig-Holstein and only two bombs fell here and one house was slightly damaged. My grandfather told me how his father, my great-grandfather, lived. They lived in rented accommodation and with several other people. The bed was often shared. If someone had to work the night shift, my great-grandfather would lie down in his bunk. One of the oldest rental settlements in Germany is the Fuggerei in Augsburg. Poor people could rent there for pennies. To make it short. Renting apartments here is very old and has little to do with the war. However, many new apartments had to be built very quickly after the war, because the expulsion of the East Prussian Silesians and Sudeten Germans led, if I'm not mistaken, to an enormous number of refugees fleeing to the areas of the GDR and West Germany. There were more than 12 million people who, apart from their didn't have any luggage with them. Otherwise a very interesting video. I sent the video link to a friend of mine who is American.
Hi there, You bring up great points about the really complex dimensions surrounding rental tenancy immediately following the war. We tried to cover some of the significant causes, but we also tried to express very clearly and directly that we can only cover a few causes for this phenomenon and was not a comprehensive overview. For example, we could have also provided additional clarity into how German's post-industrial revolution "Landflucht" also significantly increased tenancy in Germany's major cities... but we had to make the executive decision to limit the scope.
Truly, I think this topic could have been spread over multiple videos, but often times many of those additional factors had to be edited out due to time. We're always trying to strike a balance between information (with research) and entertainment (less than 25 minutes). Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we miss out on factors. And again, I do think your point would have been an important one to make.
We really appreciate your feedback and hope that you continue to share these great aspects of the home ownership and rental experience in Germany. We've been so impressed by the knowledge that has been shared in the comment's section. It really motivates us to make each video a littler better than the last. ❤️
@@TypeAshton I didn't write about tenancy law after the Second World War, but that there were rented apartments here before the two world wars. What you write about the rural exodus is true. The cities grew like Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, but mainly in the Ruhr area. And there, two families often lived in a rented apartment, until the situation improved after Otto von Bismarck's social reforms. But you're right, it's a complex subject, I just cared that there were rentals here before the two world wars. What I would like to briefly mention is that my great-grandfather was from Poland, who came to Germany after the failed revolution of 1848. At that time, many Germans emigrated to the USA. Both my great-grandfather and my grandfather were miners and lived in the Ruhr area. My father was born in 1917 and was the first to marry a German woman. I was born in 1971. The Ruhr Poles were very disadvantaged by the Germans, they earned less but had to pay the same rent as German workers, and I could say a lot more about that, but I'll close, otherwise it will be too long. I've subscribed to your channel and I'm excited to see what's to come. czcams.com/video/f6gbAsrYf90/video.html
When I was living in an apartment complex in the US, one of my neighbors had a cat and the neighbor below them named the cat "Tyrannosaurus Rex". According to him his walls were shaking whenever the cat moved. I frequently was woken up in the early morning because my upstairs neighbor opened a drawer. My parents build one of those non solid houses in germany because they were afraid of the long building time for solid ones. I would never buy or build one of those.
I really like your videos because you always put so much effort into researching background Information. Greetings from the other side of the black forest.
Oh that's so funny! We have had similar stories in our old college apartments.
Thank you for watching our videos!
You guys really deserve way more subscribers.
Especially for how much work and knowledge is going into your videos.
Thank you! We just started just 9 months ago and have really been so humbled by the wonderful response we've gotten thus far. We appreciate your support.
Awesome video! I’m a US architect who wants to move abroad & I’m so glad I found your channel 😍👍🏻
Ah how cool! So glad we could inspire your move! If you ever have any questions please let us know.
Very interesting insight, thx guys, macht weiter so! 🤗
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching!
I would love to have mostly single family homes here in Germany. Multi family housing has no privacy, no space to work on stuff and you are in a constant conflict with your neighbours over everything. Especially in the last 3 decades it has become terrible as now you also get ethnic and cultural disputes within the houses.
From what I observe (being someone who recently built a Fertighaus in Germany) Germans are discovering the advantages of construction using wood. And we're not just talking carbon emissions, we're talking similarly good insulation, faster construction, easier ways of fitting stuff like ventilation systems, ... Overall, it works just as well than the classic Massivhaus.
I noticed in your video that inside your house you use quite a bit of Trockenbau, which is very similar to the US method of building houses, just that it usually uses steel frames instead of wooden struts. I find that this way of building is currently being used for interior walls rather often in Germany.
I wonder what your thoughts on this are?
sorry, but germany (or eu in general) certainly not just now discovering timber houses just recently. it has been part of modern construction for last 20-30 years or so.
First of all, I never watch a 24 min vid. I figured I'd tap in just a min or two and see what ya'll were talking about on this subject. Now, here I am at the end of 24 minutes, wondering how your video completely captivated me, making 24 mins feel more like 5 mins or less!!! Exceptionally well done you two! Thank you! So tasteful, tactful, and informative at the same time! I will certainly be tuning back in!
Something really specific that I'd like to learn more about and hear ya'll talking about would be the following:
1. Redlining lending standards of Private banks, savings and loans, and VA. Does that outlawed practice still affect homeownership, legacy, and community construction for the BIPOC demographic in the USA?
2. 1950s urban renewal projects
3. Project housing / Public housing construction
I just saw your other vids! So cool to see you've already kinda touched on these things I asked about! Thank you! czcams.com/video/M-CJ7hoaT3Q/video.html
Thank you so much for watching and for the nice comment!
Ich mag eure analytische Herangehensweise 👍 genau wie euer Video über den Vergleich der Krankenversicherungen DE/US: informativ und kurzweilig ☺️
Super! Wir freuen uns sehr, dass Ihnen das Video gefallen hat.
@@TypeAshton Ihr dürft mich ruhig duzen, sonst fühl ich mich alt 😉
Meine Frage an euch beide, mit eurem beruflichen Hintergrund: ich habe mich immer gefragt ob Häuser wie sie bei uns in Deutschland stehen, weniger oder sogar unbeschadet aus Naturkatastrophen, wie sie oft im „Tornado Alley“ vorkommen, herauskommen würden. Was ist eure Meinung dazu?
there is a old joke that is about the long building time in germany: a german and a chinese business man make a bet who can build a skyscraper faster. after a few months the chinese calls the german and says: "i need to build only one additional floor to finish the building". The german replies: "i need only one additional permit from the authorities to start building".
I have built in the countryside in Bavaria and It’s really opened my eyes to so much about the culture. I think there are way too high standards in some respects. Incredibly expensive flooring, for example, a huge garage, a huge house here in the countryside, for that matter. And not for rich people, but for normal working class. And then work for decades to pay it off and don’t experience much outside of village life. Everyone owns their own individual thing, not so much community sharing of equipment and play areas etc. People live in mansions compared to the same kind of people in GB.
In the country, family members help each other out so every young couple get their own, new home when they marry and especially as there will eventually be children. The most expensive part, the land, is usually there and the whole family builds the house, each contributing in their area of expertise. Everyone chips in and when the recipients' cousin's kid gets married, they reciprocate.
@@lumina9995 true, but I am still astounded by the size of the houses and the hours these young wives (and here it is the wives doing it) will spend cleaning them.
@@LaureninGermany I agree there are some very rich people who live in the countryside. The richest are farmers who were able to sell their land to the state to build the Autobahn on, or to builders.
@@LaureninGermany true. The size of the house my parents bought (build in the late 60s) boggles the mind. And the size of the garden!
@@sisuguillam5109 Well, houses back then were built to accommodate multiple generations under one roof. Grandparents, parents, children, and sometimes even the grandchildren.
Great topic and video, I'm going to be moving soon, and knowing that it is much more expensive to buy as opposed to rent in Germany, condo, single home, multi-family home, etc, it would be nice if you could include the different regions in Germany and the price. Also, you could hopefully talk about the whole process of buying, finding land, obtaining a contractor. etc.
In Australia, we increasingly see steel frames rather than wood frames. Same pre-fabrication process, but typically in a mid-blue so they stand out from the pine or green treated-pine prefabs.
Congratulations on a great topic to talk about. I am currently living in Bavaria and still have a home in the US. Currently the prices of the homes there have doubled and it still makes me sad how it has become so expensive to achieve the "American Dream" of owning a house. I like the idea of subsidies but I think it should help everyone; not only the rich. I live in multi family home (1 Family and me) and I can truly say that I am impressed with the construction of this home. I feel that the size of your home in the US kind of gives you a status. I am excited to see your next video. Thank you for the great history of homes in Germany. I would have like to have learned this in school. Until the next one! Danke
Just wondering if in your research for this video also looked at countries around Germany? Or the difference between city and country side. (Maybe also at long term sustainability. Given that Germany is being seen in Europe as a leader in this.)
Just like Germany, the Netherlands had to rebuild not just because of the war but also because of the depression leading up to it (Like many European countries).
This backlog in housing construction plus growing population had allot of impact on urban planning and related policies.
I wonder if you looked at the difference in urban planning policies and the impact it had on what is being build and the quality of the construction.
(Great topic and it combines very well both your backgrounds. Personally I cycling as a essential part of having a livable urban environment.)
Yes, that‘s an important point to add! Germany had a huge backlog after WWW1 as all the resources and the workforce were earmarked for the war effort and afterwards inflation and the Great Depression struck.
Good morning Black Forest family 😊 a quick shoutout to Ashton for almost finishing your PHD 👏💐must’ve been quite challenging over the past two years
Thank you!! It feels so good to get to the finish line.
Wooden-framed houses are actually a trend in Germany due to the higher sustainability factors. But they are still constructed solidly with a pretty tense minimum insulation (using organic materials being a trend, too), being packed almost air-tight and with concrete floors. The walls are sturdy enough to hold large shelves with heavy load. And they are actually inspired by the original "Fachwerk"construction houses, many of which are 200+ years old and still standing if tended to properly.
Hello Ashton, hello Jonathan,
first of all - congrats to finalizing your PhD, Ashton! One difference in regards to house construction that was apparent to me - in Germany you'll next to always see a cellar whereas - according to my experience from Michigan and California - this is not common in the US.
Thank you for sharing this video,
have a great Sunday
Dieter Jurzitza
I would agree with you for old houses, but for new construction, basements are becoming rare in many regions. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the demands on them have increased (no one would build a low damp basement today), so that a basement, for example, in areas with high groundwater levels can easily drive up the construction costs by 30 - 50%. On the other hand, the need for a storage room for coal, potatoes, etc. is no longer there.
There are also areas in Germany, where a cellar is not common. Where I live, the ground is quiet wte, so water is a big problem and most (older) houses have no or only a small cellar, just big enough some shelfes for the pickled garden crops and today for the heating. The house I live in has a souterrain, which is only about 1,2m (~4 feet) under ground.
@@kilsestoffel3690 I have lived in Bonn where the Rhine occasionally knocks at your door and demands to be let in. In the affected areas you have to build what is called "weiße Wanne". Essentially a reverse swimming pool where the water stays outside and the inside is dry. This applies especially for appartment buildings where the cars are in an underground garage (Surfside CTS?). There are even automatic shutters from metal that seal off any openings which might be under water.
But to fend off ground water intrusion is a big issue in some areas.