...when you choose a "not so big house".

I am a firm believer - and this article is on msn.com's home page right now -

http://tinyurl.com/fg2ad

Hi starrsville, that was a good article and something I have been saying for years. In our city it is not unusual for a family with one child to upgrade to a very large 5 bedroom 3 1/2 bath house with living room, family room, formal dining room (although they mostly eat take out food) etc. Consequently most houses are now unaffordable for the average family. Something like only 14% of households in our county can now qualify to buy a house. Besides all the wasted space I always think of the heating/electrical bills, property tax, homeowners insurance etc. And all the time it takes to keep them clean or what it cost to pay someone else to clean them. I have read it is typical for people to now be paying 50% of their takehome income for the mortgage. Not for me!!

This is a good article-- I totally agree!

LoveItaly, not for me too but once we finish building our house we won't have any mortgage and this is why we are going to take two years to build our small dream house. Keep in mind not every household spend 50% of its annual income on mortgage. As to heating/cooling bills. That's why we have a solar heat. After two years it costs almost nothing. Actually we sell our energy back to a local power company and we got a nice tax break too. There are ways to lower a cost. As to "Not So Big House", some of those houses are 4,000 sq.ft. 4,000 sq.ft that's a big house, in my opinion.

Thanks for posting this article, starrsville. It will be the first thing to land in the file I need to create on ideas for our future home. We currently live in a 3335 sq ft home--it's a lot of room for two people with only a cat but our space is not wasted. With the exception of two bedrooms we use every room in the house but I am conflicted about what to do when we leave in three years because I really love the elbow room but it does take a lot of time to clean and maintain. At one point we saw ourselves in an even larger home but recently have begun to talk about moving to or building a not so big home when we leave. I certainly like the idea of it especially if it means more dollars for travel.

Hi Pat, no, not every family is paying out 50% of their takehome income to the mortgage company but a lot of people who have purchased homes in these past years in the 9 country SF/Bay Area are. Housing costs are terrible, even for small houses.

A few years ago I sold a solar house which I owned for years. In the early 1980's Congress passed a bill that gave taxpayers a $4,000 tax credit when you built or purchased a solar house. Unfortunatly that tax credit was elimated sometime later which was a shame. Now solar equipment is so much more advanced than it was when we built our house but it worked wonderful for us. Even had solar heating for our swimming pool.

No, I don't consider a 4,000 sq ft house "small" either, LOL. But compared to some of the so called McMansions that some people have built I guess some would think that way.

BTW, did everyone read the average size of homes in various countries? It was quite interesting I thought.

I love that article! It describes my family and our neighborhood to a T! Older homes with character close in to downtown--so what if they're small, it keeps you from buying too much stuff!

When my partner and I retired 10 years ago and closed our successful business, we also decided to downsize. So we sold our big house with a separate guest house, pool, lakefront view, etc., etc. and purchased a much smaller condominium townhouse. Rumors ran rampant, mainly that we had lost everything in our business and even that we had declared bankruptcy. We pocketed a lot of money from the house sale (the mortgage was long paid off) even after we remodeled the condo extensively and paid everything in full up front, with no mortgage.
So we let the rumors fly. We just smile as we go off to Europe for a few months every year, or anywhere else we choose to travel.

Great article. And timely too, DH and I were just talking about how a house our size would be a "mansion" abroad, mainly in Europe. Knowing that UK and Ireland have average house sizes less than 900 sq. feet (with the US average 2300 sq. feet) validates what we were thinking. Bigger is not better. In fact, we were saying how our big houses keep us inside all the time instead of out exploring and meeting new people, doing fun things. Size does not matter, quality of life is what is important.

We have a 1300 sq ft townhouse, which I think is a pretty good size. I'd like a little more room in the living room, but other than that, I don't think I would change a thing. Our plan is to trade "up" in a few years to an old single family house downtown with a yard, but I don't want anything bigger than what we have now.

We live in the SF Bay Area, so housing costs are pretty crazy. When we bought, we didn't buy the maximum we could afford - that would have put us into the 50%+ take home pay into the mortgage category, and I didn't want to do that.

I love Susanka's books and home plans. I love the details and built-ins that are a part of her plans.

Redmond, WA has a new development of cottage housing. The architects that are working on that development have also worked on several others in the PNW. I believe the houses are all under 2000 sq. feet and have some great architectural details.

We are at a turning point with our 5-bed/4 bath home. Our kids will be leaving the nest soon, and we've recently relocated our in-home/office elsewhere. We put our home up for sale last year but it looks like we missed the tail end of the economic bubble. So we've decided to renovate our home/office section into a rental apartment to help pay for the mortgage. We may have to wait for the next economic upswing to sell which may take another 11 years. By then our mortgage will be paid off and I hope to look at retiring by then. For now, we may just rent out our entire house and move into mom's old 3-bed/1.5 bath home. Having a smaller home to keep clean appeals to me, but what scares me is having one bathroom in the house (the half bath is outside in the garage). Hard to believe that we grew up in that tiny house with us 3 kids, no computer, and only one TV with 3 stations. Oops, I'm showing my age!

Oh could I write about this, LoveItaly. My daughter has decided that she is going to raise her boys / with husband etc. all of them in about 1100 square feet with 1 bathroom. ONE BATHROOM. They have an acre yard that is breathtaking and may add one more bathroom off of the back utility room area. Her washer and drier are in a small closet one above the other. (That's in a closet, the utility room is heater/hotwater unit etc.)NO BASEMENT.

They could afford a big house too, but just don't want to put all that into mortgage interest. She does not have to work at all until the boys are 10 or 12 this way as well.

I've downsized twice but I have to tell you that I think it is a real negative when people are sick having the one bathroom. They end up coming to my house.

We commonly see people in our area having 5000 sq. feet for 3 people. Nearly every living child has their own room and bathroom. And there usually is some rooms never used. In my large houses all the rooms were used rooms.

I truly agree with this article- totally. BUT- just because your house is small does not mean it will not be costly. ALL our houses are getting extremely costly because of property taxes.

But I have to tell you because I live in 1000 square feet in MI with guy and bird- I LOVE MY SPACE. I'll die before I give up my sunny room with 10 foot ceilings to do aerobics and won't downsize my restaurant sized kitchen for anyone. LOL!

Oh yes, with any luck, hard work, and resourcefulness, you CAN do both dream house AND travel. You can have both. It's all about priorities.

All most people would need to do is to quit watching so much television. It just all takes time and thought.

JJ5 - I grew up in a house smaller than your daughter's, and it only had one bathroom. We didn't have a large yard either. We managed just fine. It was a little cramped sometimes, but overall it was great.

DH and I have 2 bathrooms in our house and sometimes he has to remind me that the 2nd one exists.

Me too. 5 with 1 bathroom- but it wasn't 2006. It was a different fashion life. We ironed too. Remember!

Do you have girls- my son has 3? We are a spa people now, and the electrical hot rollers, blow dryers, curlers alone! You should see how the average college girl reacts to sharing a bathroom now- I see it every semester! It's not norm as it was.

Count me in as one with a small home (1200 hsf). I just don't want to have to deal with 2500 square feet of space.

I'm lazy.

Having 1200 sq.ft. for two adults is not the same as under that for 4 or 5 with kids. That's one of the main reasons that people with children often move. Growing kids and their equipment (LOL- just the sports equipment, in my case)- take up far more room than adults seem to.

When you are talking adults and family with multiple children you are talking apples and oranges.

If you read "Not So Big House' soon you learn that the author focuses on small but expensive houses. She emphasizes these houses are smaller than an average house being built today but they cost about the same as twice bigger houses. The choice is yours. Do you want a small expensive house or do you want a house that will cost you the same $$$ but with more sq. ft

Wasn't the house style in Levittown about 750 square feet? Many families were raised in thouse houses.

I read about the Redmond, Wa neighborhood (maybe in Sunset magazine?). I'm not sure about the neighborhood since it doen't have driveways/gargaes. Parking is nearby. Not too good when you're bringing back a bunch of groceries or trying to have furniture delivered. Not sure about fire or other emergency services and if they can reach the homes easily.

I live in a small home (under 1,000 square feet) and don't want a huge house. I don't want to clean the space I have already. Though it would be nice to have a garage.