A Reddit user in Liberty Hill, Texas, had a new neighbor who was building a home in a floodplain, 15 feet from a creek that flooded in 2016. The ostentatiousness led the user to share a picture to r/McMansionHell.
"This is being built next to our house. It is in a floodplain and we have tried to warn them," the original poster wrote. "The owner said it's going to be 6,600 square feet but it has 8 ft ceilings. The large garage opening on the left is for their RV."
Large homes are decidedly harmful for the environment. Besides the excessive amount of materials needed to build mansions in the first place, large homes also have massive energy demands, which produce their own atmospheric pollution.
Then there are land use issues. Dense housing is a key part of preventing urban sprawl and providing efficient delivery of services. The more land eaten up by these kinds of homes, the more resources need to be spent (and pollution produced) to connect them to roads and power.
As atmospheric pollution increases, so too does the chance of flooding. Texas has been subject to quite a few natural disasters within recent memory. Hurricane Beryl in July, heavy rainfall in May that rivaled Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Laura in 2020 are just some examples that resulted in extreme flooding.
One study gave the Lone Star State the dubious honor of having the most expensive natural disasters. The increasing incidence of disastrous weather events can cause some homes, such as ones built in floodplains, to become uninsurable. The U.S. Senate Budget Committee has said that this growing insurance crisis could lead to a housing collapse worse than 2008's.
Reddit users were OK with leaving the new homeowners to deal with the consequences of their actions.
"So they chose pain I see," one community member said.
"Let them live with their folly. I bet they won't get flood insurance," the top reply stated.
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