Garage conversions have been done for decades. You can either turn the doors into windows, sliders or French doors, or if you want to block off one of the doors completely you have to be able to reside the closed off area to match the rest of the house. I have seen it done where they didn't match the siding but that reminds everyone there used to be a garage door there.

I think usually the biggest impediment to building another more practical garage is lot size and contour. A lot of those houses don't have lots big enough to have another garage built on them, and if you want to have it on the same level as the first floor that has to work on the lot somehow. If it did work it probably would have been done when the house was first built. Maybe some of these houses could have another garage built on the back corner of the lot and connect to the house with a breezeway? This depends on the actual conditions and codes.

It really depends on cost effectiveness for you. I live 7 miles from Boston with a garage under 1/2 the house and we are considering converting it to living space. We live on a corner so no room to add a separate garage. Our cars don’t fit in our 1930 garage anyway so might as well make living space instead of junk holding space. Could we sell and buy an different place? With $2M we could and stay in the same town.

Construction costs are very high and a new garage could easily be $100-150k right now. Possibly more. If you talk to local builders or someone that’s built one in the last year that could give you a good idea of what you’re in for. Good luck!

@kandrewspa Thanks for the idea of a breezeway. Probably still impractical for the New England winters but at least something to consider. The lots in many suburban NE towns tend to be giant 1/2 acre to an entire acre while the house sitting on the lot is hardly 2000sqft. (Plus, the bi-laws prevent you from splitting these enormous lots and building more than one unit... one of the key reasons for this insane inventory shortage we have had for over a decade now and things went on insane bidding wars way before Covid made it fashionable in rest of the country. But I digress. Completely irrelevant to the garage question and yet that is one of the reasons why we have to consider a less-than-ideal house and figure a way to make it work for us.)

@chispa I think that is what my fear was. With the current labor cost and construction cost, it ultimately makes sense to just buy a house with a garage on the same level even with a slight higher price tag of the house.

@Sarah yep, Boston market has been insane for a while, even before Covid. Sucks.

Did you end up doing anything to the property? We are also in NE and have a similar situation going.