Why do you need a bigger house?

[mbalbritton]

From the MOTD thread talking about median house sizes, salaries and cost comparisons.

Leads to a question of why? Why do Americans think they NEED a bigger house? Or why do they want a bigger house?

Granted I went from a 1300sqft house in NC that was 3 bed 2 bath with 2 adults and 3 kids to a 2100 sqft 3 bed 2 bath and minus 1 kid. But I want to downsize to be honest. I’d rather have a smaller higher quality house.

But why does the average person want a bigger house?

 

[Lurch830]

Speaking for myself (I don't necessarily want a bigger house)....I'm a bit of a hoarder and have a lot of stuff. I do however want a bigger garage/shop because I have too much of said stuff!

 

[UTfball68]

I don’t…a bigger house just means I spend more money to fill it with shit I don’t need. In my 3500sq/ft house…I probably only utilize 300sq/ft of it for movement/entertainment. But I reckon that’s what expendable income is for.

And honestly, have some personal shit going down, and I’m looking 10+ acres and just having my construction crew put up a tiny house.

 

[braxton357]

2 bathrooms minimum.

 

[CasterTroy]

This argument is kinda fun


Why do you NEED a gun? (Because Murica )

Why do you NEED multiple vehicles?

Why does anyone NEED anything more than a Toyota Corolla?

Because it's not 1932 and there's no need to make our own soap or share a bedroom with 7 siblings

 

[LBarr2002]

I dont think it's just the size that makes the difference indicated in the other thread. My Granddad and a few of his buddies built his first house from a sawmill kit, basically a local version of a sears roebuck house. You could never do that today.

As far as size, I have no room to talk. I built what I hope is my forever home on the family farm the same year I got married. Its 2400 sq feet, but has a full basement that is over half garage and the rest unfinished space, and about 1200 ft of unfinished attic that I could finish one day.

 

[R Q]

I don't like big houses NOR stairs. I've always had a simple home. I do have a big ass shop and like it just the way it is. People want bigger homes because they want to keep up with the Jones's and must impress others.

 

[Atla]

We are in a 3,000SQFT house (including full/finished basement), plus a two car garage.

And we'd love to downsize and a smaller house...

Except, ya know, math.

Mortgage Calculator

Use our free mortgage calculator to easily estimate your monthly payment. See which type of mortgage is right for you and how much house you can afford.

www.ramseysolutions.com

And this is an even funner one to play with:

Mortgage Calculator

Use our free mortgage calculator to easily estimate your monthly payment. See which type of mortgage is right for you and how much house you can afford.

www.ramseysolutions.com

Our 300k house at 2.5% will cost us $426k after 30 years. (126K in interest)
A new 250k house at 7% would cost us $598k after 30 years. (348K in interest)

 

[CasterTroy]

People want bigger homes because they want to keep up with the Jones's and must impress others.

That's usually what I say about people with new diesel trucks

 

[benXJ]

if NC keeps voting for unrestrained, unplanned, and unneeded growth, then we'll all be in smaller houses/apt before long!

 

[StretchASU]

I was sure to set the filter to: 3 bed, 2.5 bath, first floor master. No garage. 2100sq/ft max before we started looking at floor plans since we plan to build in the next year or so. We have enough space between the shop, barns and two 53’ van trailers I don’t need more room to accumulate useless shit. Still on the fence as to whether I want a basement because it’s cheap square footage if I don’t finish it out right away. But it’s also more space to accumulate shit and we could spend that money on a kick ass porch, outdoor kitchen and pole barn style carport next to the house.

 

[Ron]

I don't like big houses NOR stairs. I've always had a simple home. I do have a big ass shop and like it just the way it is. People want bigger homes because they want to keep up with the Jones's and must impress others.

Not always.
I give zero shits what anyone thinks about my house…and currently in the process of looking to move.

Part of the challenge is we want good build quality and several “custom” finishing…and need move on ready don’t have time to build. The market we are shopping we have seen 1200-1800 sqft track homes with Formica counters, fiberglass tubs and vinyl inserts, and vinyl floored bathrooms….or 3500+ sqft homes with the finish details we want and better resale potential when we flip out in 3 years….so guess what these two empty nesters are buying,,,

 

[Loganwayne]

Well I do want a bigger house. Our house is right under 1000sf with 3 (really 2) bed one bath. The one bath sucks. Plan is to add a oversized two car garage and above it have a master suite and an office and laundry room. All that would be on same level as our house and go down stairs to the garage area.

 

[Loganwayne]

Not always.
I give zero shits what anyone thinks about my house…

My wife is terrified about what our friends and people I work with think about our house.

I always tell her who gives a fuck it's paid for and we can do what we want while they are paying huge mortgages

 

[Atla]

I was sure to set the filter to: 3 bed, 2.5 bath, first floor master. No garage. 2100sq/ft max before we started looking at floor plans since we plan to build in the next year or so. We have enough space between the shop, barns and two 53’ van trailers I don’t need more room to accumulate useless shit. Still on the fence as to whether I want a basement because it’s cheap square footage if I don’t finish it out right away. But it’s also more space to accumulate shit and we could spend that money on a kick ass porch, outdoor kitchen and pole barn style carport next to the house.

Get the basement. Eff a crawlspace!

 

[kaiser715]

We went from 1200sf to 3000. I knew at the time we were probably overdoing it, but we stayed in the 1200sf house far to long and wanted elbow room. Plus, about the time we started with our design work my MIL wound up in a wheelchair. Made us prioritize making things handicap accessible in case we needed it in the future, so some space was used up with wider hallways, room for 36" doorways thruout, bathroom large enough to manage a wheelchair, etc. All one level, of course.

For junk, we each have our own oversized office/junk room (around 200 sf for each of us). Kind of a luxury, but well worth the space, and keeps our crap out of each other's way.

I'd do it the same way next time. But if I have my way, the next move is the old folks home.

 

[untchabl]

Our house is just under 1800 sqft, 3 bedroom 2 bathroom and it's all we want/need. Before we built this house, we lived in a doublewide and if it had been up to me, we'd still be living in it with no mortgage. But, sometimes you gotta give in to the wife.

Now, let's talk about shop space, I'm planning on 3000+ sqft on the new build. Current shop is right at 1500 sqft and shared with my Dad and brother. New shop will be just for me.

 

[jeepinmatt]

Before we built this house, we lived in a doublewide and if it had been up to me, we'd still be living in it with no mortgage.

We were in our 850sqft garage apartment on 18 acres with 2000sqft of shop and garage space and it was within $10k of being paid off when we took the first draw on the construction loan for my wife’s 2500sqft house with a 1500sqft basement and a median home price mortgage.

 

[jeepinmatt]

To answer the original question, it’s all very relative. I know a bunch of people with 3-5k+ sqft houses that think they aren’t big enough. We intentionally kept ours just under 2500sqft because that was comfortably big enough for 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths (gave each of our kids a bedroom, and also a guest room with private bath for family visits), but no too big to keep up with when we get older, and not too much extra to heat/cool and keep clean.

 

[RatLabGuy]

We are in a 3,000SQFT house (including full/finished basement), plus a two car garage.

And we'd love to downsize and a smaller house...

Except, ya know, math.

Mortgage Calculator

Use our free mortgage calculator to easily estimate your monthly payment. See which type of mortgage is right for you and how much house you can afford.

www.ramseysolutions.com

And this is an even funner one to play with:

Mortgage Calculator

Use our free mortgage calculator to easily estimate your monthly payment. See which type of mortgage is right for you and how much house you can afford.

www.ramseysolutions.com

Our 300k house at 2.5% will cost us $426k after 30 years. (126K in interest)
A new 250k house at 7% would cost us $598k after 30 years. (348K in interest)

Incorrect.

You can downsize your house for the price of a couple sledges, pizza, and dump truck rental. Maybe a bobcat if ya want to make it quick.

 

[RatLabGuy]

Back o/t

I don't want a bigger house.
I just want a bigger garage,

My house is ~1750 sq ft main floor, plus 2/3 that partially finished basement. Yeah it would be nice to have an extra bedroom for guests... but then I'd have one less excuse to not have guests.

 

[AdamH]

My wife and I have two homes - 1 here in Mt Holly and 1 on the coast. Both are larger than we need however location and future plans dictated what we built.

The house here is on Mt Island Lake. There is a minimum size allowed in our HOA / Developer ran neighborhood. We built a larger house (5,000 sq ft) knowing that when it comes time to sell (built it 11 yrs ago and plan to sell in 9 yrs) that the next owner would more than likely want a large lake front home with ample entertaining space. Also most families these days seem to be 2 adults and 2-3 kids from what I see around me. We do utilize every inch of it now with just the 3 of us and the entertaining we do. So it works for us. Do we need all this space? Absolutely not. But we did want it and feel we will benefit from the size of the home when we sell.

The house down on the coast (built 4 yrs ago) is smaller (3,000 sq ft) but still built with the future in mind. In 9 yrs when we sell the Lake home the current plan is to move to the coast. At that point in time we would like to think we would have family and friends coming to stay quite often so we built a house to accommodate. However there is always a chance we sell both and go somewhere else. If that were to happen the same "rule" applies in our mind. We built a home that the next buyer would want possibly due to rental potential. As with the Lake house we do utilize every inch of it now. Didn't need all the space but wanted it. However a funny thing has happened recently....

We have had our beach house listed for sale for the past 6 months. We did so due to the stupid increase in values down there and thought if we could make bank on our investment let's try it. We have had over 30 showings including realtor only open houses to get feedback. By far the number one feedback / comment we receive is that it is priced right but TOO SMALL for today's families / vacationers. We are taking it back off the market next week and will continue with our original plan.

 

[Jody Treadway]

Just me and the wife and 2 dogs.
We're in a 2800 sq/ft 4/3 only because that was the house currently on the land we wanted. We're across the street from DuPont State Forest and pretty secluded to be as close to civilization as we are. Loved the location, not the house. It does have room for my eventual shop.
We both agree that our favorite house/floorpan was a simple 1600 sq/ft 3/2 that happened to be in a neighborhood. We would both take it, on a full basement, sitting on 10 acres.
Ours is paid for and now we've turned our focus towards investments and possibility of developing rental portfolio as retirement income.

 

[JSJJ388]

We could use more house. Is it a need? No. 2 adults plus 3 kids. Our boys share a room and that won't change for a while. We are having to convert the play room to a girls room soon. We have 1200 SF, and the only real complaint is we want to add a master suite since right now it's "3" bed and 1 very small bath. First priority is buying up land around us though. I do not intend on moving again. Only thing that would change that would be moving to the family farm.

 

[Jeff B]