In today's News & Observer

Tear-down fever pumps up values
Modest houses are razed and larger,
fancier ones are built on the site
Sarah Lindenfeld Hall and Jack Hagel, Staff Writers

Sunday Front Page June 10

Good reporting on the problem in today's N&O. The web version also has interviews with residents and a video of Anderson Drive. Ironically, one of the houses on Anderson went missing this week. You can see the bulldozer chomping it up as the videographer goes by.

"The trend will continue until every house on the street is" torn down and replaced or expanded, said John Bruckel, a developer who has lived on Anderson Drive since 1983. ...

The remaking of Anderson Drive reflects upheaval in neighborhoods across the Triangle. The rising value of land and an influx of well-off newcomers who want prime residential locations have left many older homes too modest for their addresses. ...

Now the bulldozing of once acceptable homes to make way for larger residences is at a new high. In Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, at least 212 single-family home demolition permits have been issued this year. That average of about 42 a month is 75 percent more than last year, when the municipalities issued a five-year high of 291 permits.

A little research shows that this was the latest house demolished on Anderson. As we say around here, it was one of the good ones -- nicely renovated, 1500 square feet, 2 baths -- it deserved better than this.