I have seen a few of these. Who pays 500k for a 4 bedroom house? Its Nuts.

Central casting

America... They find them in America.

"This Old House" USED to be the go-to low buck reno show. Now they are just the same. But with a few more how to tips.

Gah! And worse with the "our budget is x, but we'll blow by that with dumb shit and things that would have turned up in the inspection but it doesn't matter because our parents will give us more anyway".

Grrrrr.

I'd love to see them do shows where the budget is firm. Or even remodel but with purpose, taking dogs of the neighborhood with block grants and seeing what can be done on tight budgets. Classic rehab not "these things are fashionable right now so we're going to put them in at incredibly high cost even though arty types made them fashionable in spaces where they had to make do with what they had".

I'm looking at you, shiplap walls and polished concrete.

I like HGTV, especially while I was in house shopping mode recently. But I had the same reaction. The remedy is to watch a bunch of tiny house shows. You don't have to GO tiny to appreciate the efficiencies and creative economizing ideas. Yay!
ps: Now that I just bought a house ...938 sq ft...I can't stop watching gardening shows. Wee! ?

I'd believe a 20,000 sq ft house.

They probably mistyped the square footage . More likely ment 2,000 sq. ft . that Dad bought for them .

How about “I’m a single income worker with unaffordable rent, need to downgrade to a one bedroom, trashy apartment complex so I can afford to pay the government 45% of my income and be able to eat and have a few dollars for myself each month.” Where did the realism go? Stop showing elitists to the lower class and promoting it as normal.

I hate them, too

I totally agree! If those TV folks represent the majority of this country then apparently I've been living under a rock for a long time.

That must be a typo? A house that size is a... shopping mall! And a big one!