This jive-plastic junk is right behind my mom's house.
I don't know, Cat, your example doesn't look that bad (and certainly not as charmless as the Kunstler example). Its certainly more modest and appealing (to me) than the mega-mansions filling their lots that low housing prices allow the upper middle class to build in my hometown two hours down the road from you (Fort Wayne)
Where I live now-that would be a $400,000 property
As for the kind of house Kunstler lives in-according to his site, he lives in an 1820s Greek Revival cottage in Saratoga Springs, NY. Not a real elaborate house at all. Almost a very simple bungalow.
Still, how many people can really live in a 200-year old house in a Victorian resort town? Is his experience really transferrable to most of the country (especially since he himself abandoned a large city, NYC)
As for the argument that this is middle class housing that provides homeownership for everyone. That is a good point. But, middle class housing doesn't have to be so bad. It wasn't during the 1910s, 20s, and 30s (bungalows, cottages, period revival, etc)
Rant follows:
The architecture profession, building industry, and homebuying public lost their way during the late 60s-early 80s (war, stagflation, the exhaustion of modernism and the resulting reaction towards trite traditionalism-light). I hope things are better now. While I still dislike California tract housing, it is better designed than most of the dark ages stuff.