Originally the starter home was a low cost easy to build home mass produced by Sears et al.
Then it became an older home in a more run down neighborhood. But neighborhoods aren’t running down as much as they used to.
Now it’s almost extinct because the cost to build a code-compliant house is so large and the cost to make it “bigger” isn’t much, so only bigger ones are built. Many houses that people are living in today are illegal to build. And building code improvements aren’t all bad - the energy saving can be huge. But other minimums could perhaps be investigated.
Townhomes still exist in some areas, but they have their own issues.
I have built 3 houses. I did not find code compliance a problem. In fact, code kept me from making a dangerous mistake during construction.
The reason I built up-scale houses was there was more money in it. It required roughly the same amount of effort to build starter and up-scale projects.
Then it became an older home in a more run down neighborhood. But neighborhoods aren’t running down as much as they used to.
Now it’s almost extinct because the cost to build a code-compliant house is so large and the cost to make it “bigger” isn’t much, so only bigger ones are built. Many houses that people are living in today are illegal to build. And building code improvements aren’t all bad - the energy saving can be huge. But other minimums could perhaps be investigated.
Townhomes still exist in some areas, but they have their own issues.