2y ago

Goodbye Bathtub and Living Room. America’s Homes Are Shrinking

www.wsj.com

Goodbye Bathtub and Living Room. America’s Homes Are Shrinking.

Faced with high mortgage rates, cost-constrained Americans are embracing smaller homes

19 comments

What the fuck? It's called a starter home. How is the existence of sane-sized singe-family or mutli-family homes supposed to be a bad thing?
- Bad thing? It's not a bad thing. It's an unobtainable thing for many.
  
  This is true, I was criticising the weird tone of the article for implying it was some great burden to only have one or two large dedicated living spaces and 100sqft bedrooms rather than three and 200. It would be a whole lot less unnatainable if 2 bedroom/1 shower, 800sqft units in a multiplex or 5-over-one were the default rather than half the size of what this article is trying to present as some bizarre abberation.
The average American house is still pretty giant, it's good to see that the size is coming down.
- It's good that people live in smaller houses now? What the fuck do you have against working class families?
  If corporations and conservatives have their way, the working class will just live in tents in front of their factory jobs.
  
  It is good that the houses are becoming less gigantic now, and I have nothing against working-class families.
  From the article:
  In December, Brad and Julie Redman downsized from their more-than 7,000 square-foot custom-built home to a 3,400 square-foot semi-custom model in Westfield, Ind., after their children left home.
  Since 2018, the average unit size for new housing starts has decreased 10% nationally to 2,420 square feet
  Sonia Mendez, a real-estate agent in the area, said she has seen builders increase construction of 1,500 to 1,700 square-foot townhomes.
They stole the American dream from us.
- Yep lawns have shrunk and houses have gotten bigger
  https://youtu.be/uKwOyA-pOTY
  https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/lawns-census-bigger-homes-smaller-lots/489590/
  
  It's wild. Granted I don't want kids, but I can't imagine wanting more than a 2 bed/2 bath. Main bedroom, guest bedroom/office, and a finished basement assuming that's feasible where I end up. Don't want to deal with cleaning more than that.
- Nah, you can still dream of owning a home. /s
"embracing"
Paywalled, but american homes are too damn big. Why can't I find an 800sq foot house? I don't need that much space.
not where im at its not.

19 comments