Few places were more settled than a comfortable stretch of Anderson Drive, a leafy street off Glenwood Avenue in central Raleigh lined mostly by bungalows and Cape Cod-style homes built more than 50 years ago.

But since 2001, "tear-downs" have uprooted the street. Property owners are razing the homes that housed families for a generation and replacing them with large homes that consume much of the lot. In one stretch of 20 homes, half have been torn down or substantially expanded in the past six years.

"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.

As the old houses have come down, the value of the neighborhood has gone up. Ten years ago, homes on Anderson sold for between $175,000 and $250,000. This year, an original home sold for $420,000. New homes on the street are on the market for more than $1 million.

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.

In the Triangle, the rise in demolitions has provoked some neighbors to push for controls. They argue that tear-downs -- often done by builders and investors who target several homes at a time -- also change the scale and character of the neighborhoods.

Last week, the Raleigh City Council agreed to talk during the coming budget discussions about hiring a new planner who would study tear-downs and perhaps craft new regulations for them.

McMansions multiply

In fast-growing regions around the nation, attractive, established neighborhoods are losing their original homes and sprouting larger ones, some so spacious they're dubbed "McMansions."

"It's almost gentrification on steroids," said Stephen Melman, an economist at the National Association of Home Builders.

It's happening near the employment centers of the region's major cities. In Raleigh, Five Points, University Park and North Ridge have been targets. Likewise Trinity Park and Hope Valley in Durham.

Durham has regulations that limit what can be built in its urban neighborhoods, said Frank Duke, the city-county planning director. But he said neighborhoods such as Hope Valley, a 1930s golf-course neighborhood in southern Durham, lack similar protection. Some of its residents have raised concerns about what is being built.

Last year, a coalition of Hope Valley residents sought a special overlay from the city to protect the neighborhood. But resistance from some of their neighbors led them to withdraw it in February. The coalition is pursuing listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Duke doesn't see any end to the tear-down trend.

"As people's lifestyles change, their expectation of housing changes," he said. "You'll continue to see this kind of an issue so long as people continue to change. And that's human nature."

Building new in an established neighborhood appeals to some prospective home buyers. They already know what the neighborhood looks like and what stores are nearby. And they don't have to worry about paying homeowners association dues, $200 a month or more in some subdivisions.

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