But that makes the assumption that the higher interest rates aren’t lowering supply by keeping homes off the market. I have a decently sized home (2300 sq ft) but had wanted to move onto something around 3500 sq ft and pay a new mortgage in proportion to the bigger home. Of course the interest rates increase would have been paying like 2.5 times what I’m currently paying so it is a no brained for me to stay put. On the other hand, no one in my neighborhood is moving anymore so nothing is available and prices remain pretty close to their peak. So at least where I am, we now have high purchase prices and even much higher monthly mortgages.
Speaking for myself, the primary draw of larger houses are more spaces dedicated to particular tasks/hobbies/etc. So it might not be square footage that's the goal but the higher number of rooms that usually comes with that.
For example my house is ~1800sqft which is very comfortable and a massive upgrade over the apartments I used to live in that were half as large, but as someone who works from home it'd be nice to have one more room than my house has to use exclusively as an office to maintain mental partitioning between work and downtime. Similarly it might be nice for my garage to be a bit bigger so I could better fit in a "workshop corner".
Is that sort of thing needed? Absolutely not and many get along just fine with far less, but it'd still be a welcome quality of life upgrade.
Generally, heating and cooling are a lot cheaper in USA (thank you cheap natgas, and solar if you can do it).
Cleaning… a lot of the space goes unused or just stores stuff so it doesn’t get too dirty or people don’t care as much outside core areas. Central HVAC helps keep the dust down a bit vs. dead air and radiators.
My home is 3300 sq ft/306 sqm on 2.5 acres or 10,000 sqm.
My kids each have their own space. My wife has her own space. I have an office/space for myself. We have a guest bedroom (well 2, if we pick up the playroom).
It keeps the kids clutter out of the common areas. Gives us each a place to escape to.
For example I play music a lot. That would be obnoxious in the living room all the time. Though I do play in common areas here and there.
Utilities cost about 200-300 USD month. Repairs we keep stashed away as they can cost more. For example our well pump died and it was 3k. Our ac died before that and it was 8k to replace. We live well below our means though and pay cash for stuff like that.
The smallest home my builder was building when we were looking was 3100 square feet. It was $335K in 2016.
As far as what a family did with a 5 bedroom 3.5 bath house. Bedroom for me and my wife, bedroom for my son, guest bedroom with a bath, office, and gym. There was another room that was converted to a dance studio for my wife.
We did downsize late last year and now we stay in a 1300 square foot condo.
What “maintenance” do you think is more for a 3000 square foot house than a 1500 square foot house?
I just mentioned it.
1. Master bedroom
2. Son’s bedroom
3. Gym with three pieces of cardio equipment and weights
4. Office
5. Guest bedroom
The 6th room was a dance studio for my wife. She taught online fitness classes during Covid.
It’s not like we paid millions of dollars. I qualified for it when I was only making $115K and put 3.5% down - less than $12K. In 2016.
It’s now worth twice that (we rent it out to our son and two of his friends at a discount).
My wife and I have since moved to a condo in a resort area where one fee ($650) pays all utilities, access to a decent gym, 3 pools, a running trail, three restaurants on site and a lake. It’s the same price that our house was in 2016.
> vacuum everything (including the skirting boards)
My house is mostly wood floors but I maybe Swiffer and vacuum once a week (probably a lot less) for about 15-20 minutes. I run Roomba once or twice a week to take care of the rest.
> mop the floors
I can count on one hand how many times I mop floors per year in any size house.
> dust everything else
I definitely don't do the blinds/baseboards/etc enough. Wife usually does the furniture once a week and the rest is on demand.
- most of the carpet is covered by “stuff” and doesn’t get vacuumed,
- it took maybe an hour to take care of the hardwood.
- having a larger house doesn’t mean you have more to wash. How much you have to wash is a function of how many people live there.
- you would have a kitchen either way
- one bathroom only got used when guests come, one was our sons (and his responsibility). That left only two - the one in attached to our room and the half bath.
The gym got sanitized with everything being wiped down and air freshener after every use.
It’s a kitchen with a stove, a sink, a microwave and a dishwasher. What does the size of the kitchen have to do with how hard is to clean? That’s a function of how much you cook and what you use to cook.
