Photos of abandoned McMansion stun viewers after 20 years of decay: 'It's sad because it's a nice corner lot'

After gaining massive popularity in the 1980s, McMansions appeared to be a staple in many American neighborhoods for decades. However, these gargantuan homes have now earned the reputation of being eyesores with low resale value and low energy efficiency.   

While posting to a subreddit based on the discussion of McMansions, one Redditor shared photos of a property that they claim has been abandoned for over 20 years. To make matters worse, the McMansion is also allegedly sitting on what could be a highly desired lot. 

Although they said mystery surrounds the unfinished property, the original poster explained that the surrounding area has more potential than just a single vacant building. In the two pictures included in the post, a somewhat large outdoor space can be seen alongside the home, which also appears to have a more tasteful aesthetic than many McMansions — enough, perhaps, for the Redditor to call its McMansion status "debatable."     

"Bottom line, it is sitting unfinished and empty for 20+ years," wrote the original poster. "It's sad because it's a nice corner lot. A canal runs through the backyard, that's big enough for a small motor boat, kayaking, or paddle boarding and heads out to a large body of water."

While it is difficult to determine the exact number of homes that would qualify as McMansions still standing in the U.S. today, Grist went so far as to say there are 40 million throughout the country that "no one wants." The bulk of McMansion properties have been attributed to the housing boom and subsequent crash in the 2000s. 

Part of the problem on desirability is the high upfront cost and ongoing real estate taxes of such a large residence, coupled with the high energy bills of heating and cooling what's typically an unnecessarily large house with high ceilings — which are particularly bad for heating, as heat rises.

Quite simply, it takes more energy to heat or cool a larger property. This means that heating and cooling systems need to work harder regardless of how many people are actually occupying the space, leading to an increase in household pollution. 

None of that is to say someone shouldn't be able to enjoy a roomy home or pass judgment on someone who may feel this describes their own house — and really, one can envision a large family calling this example a dream home and using it without excess — but it's simply stating facts that the financial and energy economics aren't great for homes that far outpace the average size. And again, even more so when there are flourishes like the apparent vaulted ceilings.

In a study published in the journal ScienceDirect, research indicated that homeowners who built a McMansion were also more likely to expand on their already enormous homes and incur additional debt — a problem that may have happened here on the initial build, with the owner possibly running out of money to complete the project.

In the comments section, many users debated the cause of the abandoned property while some took the opportunity to admonish the construction of McMansions in general.  

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"Weird how the driveway doesn't make it all the way to the garage," noted one commenter. 

"I guess we know when construction stopped."

A second commenter offered up their take on the reason behind the incomplete home. "The more plausible explanation was either a buyer that kept changing their mind about things as the home was being constructed, or a builder that went bankrupt and took all the customer's money before it was completed," they wrote. 

"So many unfinished brick McMansions around," added another user. "Me & my hubby call them Stonemason's mansions."

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