I’ve written several blog posts about what to look for in a home, things people quite often miss in their hurry to view a house and move onto the next one.  So I’ve mentioned PUDs several times.  A PUD is a Planned Unit Development.  They are basically cluster housing, houses with very small lot sizes and no yards with a community area, sometimes nothing more than a strip of grass.

Features of a PUD

There are several easy ways to spot a PUD.  Here are some of them:

1. Small lot size.
2. No window views.
3. No yards.
4. Distorted photos.
5. High HOA fees.
6. Sidewalks.

Let’s discuss these features one by one.

Small Lot Size

Let me use an example to explain the huge difference between a PUD lot size and a normal lot size.

6540 Indiana St SE is a small 2 bedroom, 1.75 bath townhome in the 98513 zip code of Lacey, Washington.  It’s part of the Horizon Pointe PUD developed by DR Horton.  DR Horton is a subsidiary of a large Texas corporation located in Arlington on Horton Circle.  This neighborhood is often referred to as the “state street name area” because all of the streets have the names of states–Indiana, Oklahoma, Illinois, Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Utah, Delaware, Nebraska, Texas, Carolina, Vermont, etc.

This neighborhood, Horizon Pointe, is characterized by very small lot sizes, most are less than 2,500 sf.  That’s very small.  The lot size for a normal home is around 9,000 to 10,000 sf.  So these houses are practically on top of each other.  6450 Indiana St SE has a lot size of 2,250 sf.  That’s even smaller than the average at Horizon Pointe.

DR Horton calls this a “master planned community“.  That’s another name for PUD, planned unit development.  In other words, high density housing, or lots of house on small parcels of land.

If you move out of Horizon Pointe to the west you’ll find a very different community, the Capitol City Golf Club Estates.  These are homes on a public golf course.  6230 Armour St SE is a 2 bedroom, 1.75 bath home in the 98513 zip code of Lacey, Washington just a couple of blocks from 6540 Indiana St SE.  But the lot size for 6230 Armour St SE is 11,700 sf.  You read that correctly, 11,700 sf.  That’s 5.2 times the size of the townhome lot size on Indiana.  Does that put it in perspective?

No Window Views

One of the problems with such a tiny lot size is that there is no view from the windows except for the siding of your neighbors’ homes.  Even if you’re spending a great deal of time at work and not much time at home, there’s still the weekends.

A savvy real estate broker will usually close the curtains or close the blinds so buyers walking through the house don’t even notice the windows.  So pay attention.  You’re not just buying a house; you’re buying a home, your living space.

Quite a few PUDs have window views from the front only or the back only.  Great as long as that’s the only side of the house you’ll ever “live” in.  But if the last thing you see before going to sleep is your neighbor’s siding, it’s kind of depressing.  Wouldn’t you rather see an owl in the backyard tree or the moon waxing to full?

No Yards

I grew up in a typical home with front, back, and two side yards.  There was plenty of space to run as a kid and our dog could run loose.  So when I say PUDs have “no yards” what I really mean is that the “yards” aren’t really yards.  They’re small patches of bare ground between buildings.  There is rarely grass and it’s unused space between two large buildings.  Kids can’t really play in it.  Dogs can’t really run around in it.  It’s wasted space, necessary to separate two lots.

Horizon Pointe is mostly sets of two townhomes joined by one wall.  On the other side of each townhome is about three feet of space until you reach the next double set of townhomes.  Three feet is pretty small.  In fact, in some photos it’s frighteningly small and appears that you could reach out a window from one home and touch the siding of the other home.  Yikes.  :0

Distorted Photos

If you’ve looked at homes for sale then you’ve seen those distorted “fishbowl” photos that look like they were taken from a wide angle.  Those photos are usually hiding something.  It could be a small room, an odd fixture in the corner, or even to obscure the view from the window.

There’s one PUD in Olympia that has tiny windows along the ceiling.  I must have viewed ten properties in that PUD before I found one that actually had a photo of those small windows.  I had never noticed before.  So it’s also about what’s missing from the photos too.  If you don’t see a window in the photo, don’t assume there is one.  There might not be.

In the image below you can see the odd distorted photo taken from low in the room up at an angle.  This does two things: (1) obscures the neighbors’ siding from the windows because the sunlight is so bright and (2) makes the room look much larger than it is.  In PUDs distorted photos are quite common in listings.  Pay attention to what’s there, how the photo is taken, and what’s missing.

High HOA Fees

PUDs usually come with very high HOA fees.  What’s an HOA?  That’s a homeowner’s association and they are quite common in Washington, especially Thurston County.  HOAs keep the neighborhood uniform.  They keep the neighborhood green space trimmed, mowed, and manicured.  They settle problems between neighbors by levying fines against loud residents or residents who are using their yard for junk.  They provide a lot of services when they’re doing their job.  But many HOAs are “limited” in the services they provide.  Yet they charge exorbitant HOA fees.  There are several PUDs in the area that charge $353 a month for HOA fees.  When your mortgage is $1800, those HOA fees are quite high.  That’s 16% of your monthly payment.

Horizon Pointe charges only a small HOA fee for this property, $50 a month as last recorded, so it is an exception.  But if you look at Horizon Pointe on Google maps you’ll notice there isn’t any green space to take care of, so what would they be charging for?

Also notice there is no additional parking in this neighborhood and many HOAs have “no street parking” rules.  So it’s more than just the high HOA fees that PUDs have; it’s also the rules that restrict what you can do with your teeny, tiny small space.  Look up at that photo of this example property’s backyard that is on an alley. See all the concrete? They made extra parking next to their garage.  That’s really important if you have only one small garage space and the HOA has a “no street parking” rule.

Sidewalks

I don’t want to leave you with a completely negative view of PUDs, so let’s look at a positive–sidewalks.  In Thurston County, sidewalks are a rare thing.  Lacey was first built as a bedroom community, a suburb of Olympia where the state offices are located.  Sprawling homes were the norm back then.  Then it got more crowded and the Real Estate Commission and Governor decided high density housing was the solution.  As houses were built closer and closer together, the builders didn’t put in many sidewalks unless there was a store or business in the area.

Then along came PUDs.  If you look at Horizon Pointe, there are sidewalks in front of every home and all of them lead to the primary school.  That’s nice.  You can walk the kids to school and walk the dog around the block without worrying that a car is going to run you down.  In fact, sidewalks are common among the PUDs in the area.  The second photo is a PUD northwest of Horizon Pointe just off College.  It also has sidewalks in front of every home.  That makes it easy to walk to Safeway which is nearby.  Or they can walk the other direction and hit Walmart.

I hope this article on PUDs has been enlightening.  Lacey is unique in that it has a combination of high density housing (PUDs) and regular homes.  It’s important to understand the difference and know what you are buying.