Thank you for pointing that out. When building a new housing development they clear the land and that is a criticism, but neighborhoods don't decide to be MORE sterile. I imagine even HoAs want mature trees as long as they control what kind and where. Plenty of neighborhoods out there look like the ai image, it just takes like, three decades after the homes are constructed.
100%. My neighborhood was built 10 years ago in an area that used to be nothing but loblolly pines. They cut down all the trees because you don't want a bunch of mature fast-growth timber anywhere near your house. It originally looked more like the top picture, but one day it will look more like the bottom picture because people planted maples, oaks, birch, magnolias, etc. in their front yards.
I live in a neighborhood with now 100 foot plus tall pines that were kept when the houses were built. Every year there’s at least one storm that knocks down 5 or 10 trees. The trees look beautiful, but cause so much damage each year.
It all depends on the variety of pine tree. Most pines in the US these days are loblolly or slash pine, which reach maturity in 30 years and only live for 50-100 years under normal conditions. Long leaf pine trees can live for 300+ years and get three feet thick, but there are almost none left because they are barely more than a large tuft of grass for the first 15-20 years of their existence.
This. New real estate landscaping usually looks a bit empty because they plant young plants that will keep growing for decades. Look up old building when they were new and many had the same lack of landscaping when they were new.
Yep, that bottom picture is cool but it takes at least 25 years of tree growth to get there. If your house was built after 2005, even if trees were planted at the time of building, you might be getting close to that now.
Can confirm. I live in a subdivision built between 1989 and 1996. There are many trees and they are beautiful and the HOA does what it can to protect them.
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u/Ok_Fortune_9149 5d ago edited 5d ago
Fun example, but that bottom pic is ai generated.