Dollhouses in Texas

While the U.S. housing industry suffers through its worst slump in 15 years, Dallas-based Fox & Jacobs has sold some 600 cottage homes in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston since July. Reason: the houses are going for as little as $34,500. Fox & Jacobs, which uses assembly-line methods, has become a master builder of low-priced homes.

The company cuts costs at every step, beginning with the concrete slabs on which each home sits. Crews stretching out for four blocks lay foundations for a whole neighborhood. Construction hands then nail frames and panels assembled in company factories to the slabs, and add prebuilt roof sections and wood siding. The least expensive cottages take only 33 days to construct. Conventionally built houses, by contrast, may take up to 36 days. While one of the bedrooms in some models is too small for a double bed, the living rooms and kitchens have vaulted ceilings, giving an impression of spaciousness. Because of the low price and an attractive 14.5% mortgage that Fox & Jacobs helps owners obtain, the typical monthly payment on the new cottage homes is only $518.

The small homes are now outselling larger Fox & Jacobs models by 3 to 1. Until last July the price of the company’s bestselling houses ranged from $60,000 to $80,000. Sales Manager Joseph Kantrell believes that cottage houses would do even better if more of them could be built. But some local zoning officials are not permitting the firm to construct the small homes because they fail to meet minimum square-footage requirements.

Three weeks ago, James and Patricia Allen moved into their new three-bedroom, 1,000-sq.-ft. cottage home 33 miles northwest of Houston. Allen, 38, who builds displays for oil and gas exhibitions, was looking for something near his job. The couple has three children, ages six, four and two, and plans to move in a few years into a bigger place. Says Patricia: “I wouldn’t be happy here if I knew I had to live in this house for the rest of my life. But since it’s a semi-temporary situation, I can live with it. But what I wouldn’t give for just 100 feet of extra room!”