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10 biggest home-buying mistakes
(D. Gerasimatos) wrote in message ...
In article ,
XOR wrote:
I am not sure you can convince me that all those single people or
young couples w/no kids *really need* a 3000+ sq ft house. That's the
going model for most new homes in this town. Around here, it seems
*most* people buy more house than they need.
This sounds specific to your town. Do not project it across the entire
USA. Nationwide, the average house is less than 3000 square feet.
Dimitri
Well, I didn't project it across the entire country, but it is not
specific only to one town. 3 of the 4 states I have lived in the past
10 years (in 4 different parts of the country) have this phenomenon.
Most places that are seeing a growth spurt are following this trend.
Buying an old, small house, I was recommended a book "Not so Big
House" about the new Urbanism and the anti-McMansions. The size of the
houses being touted as the anti-McMansions? 3000 SF. Obviously, that's
only one author, and one following, but it does reflect a general
trend in many suburban areas. Note that in urban areas it's a lot
different. In the suburbs (take your pic - LA, Atlanta, Chicago, South
Texas - you have House Farms full of McMansions), 3000 SF is pretty
much the norm. Unfortunately, this poses a number of problems:
destruction of landscape along with increased energy use to heat and
cool those huge things, not least of which because they're not built
with the climate in mind....
Locally, and I did state that clearly in the initial post, 3000SF is
pretty normal. On the larger side, but normal. The vast majority of
people I know who have bought such homes are either single, or couples
w/o kids. So, 3000 SF for 1-2 people (these same folks tend not to be
the type to have overnight guests like family stay either).
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