[Source: Betty Beard, Arizona Republic] -- Pam Thelander jokes that she threw her Tempe house in the garbage. It's basically true. Thelander is one of a growing number of residents in and around Tempe who are demolishing older homes and rebuilding on the same lots. Her 40-year-old house was smashed and hauled away. The trend is catching on in Tempe because houses and land have become much more valuable and because Tempe has large older lots with mature trees and a location close to the heart of the Phoenix area.
Pam and her husband, Todd, who farms near Maricopa, learned it would cost $70,000 to $80,000 to bring their 2,400-square-foot home up to date. They paid $18,000 for demolition and plan to replace it with a 6,000-square-foot home. "We had a demolishing party. It was so much fun," she said. "We invited the kids in the neighborhood. The teenagers went nuts, putting trash in my oven, the stove, knocking down walls. We allowed the kids to do graffiti."
Tempe has seen 53 homes demolished in the past three years, according to city demolition permits. The bulk of those, 29, were last year. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]
