YouBet said:

---

Reasons:

• Home ownership became a vehicle for wealth storage/growth.
• People tend to want more and are never satisfied with what they have.
• Keeping up with Joneses.
• Lot sizes in urban areas forced people to build up instead of out enabling more sq footage.
• There are others....

My ideal house is a 1 story home that is between 2,000-2,500 sq feet.

---

All your bullet points are dead on.

I haven't really paid attention to recent trends in housing, but for many years the children of more than a few of my clients were building houses costing $500k to $750k (five to ten years ago or so). These were people in their early 30s. Parents generally were pretty successful and had money to help with the cost. At the time, most people a generation older were in houses worth about half that. I have noticed recently (I have been checking activity because I have an office for sale and about to list our home for sale) that a lot of these homes are for sale. Every week, one or two hit the market. Have no idea if the are building something even larger or downsizing. I am not in touch with them like I used to be now that I have retired.

My wife and I are about to build a new house, hopefully pour the slab next week. Our kids are grown and the house is 2,515 sq feet of living area but has lot of large porches. We were in the process of building a home of nearly 4,000 square feet on that acreage when 9/11 happened so we put it on hold. Sure glad we did, hate to think of insurance and taxes on that place.

Our house is two stories and 3,200 sq ft and it's just the two of us. More than we need but it's a family home that we bought because we didn't want to sell it just yet. Instead, we sold our prior home and bought this one which got us debt free. Not sure how long we will stay here; but I would much prefer a one story with less sq footage.

Having said that you can make use of the space if you are smart about it. It's four bedrooms so we converted one bedroom to my office which I pretty much live in (I work from home), and we converted another bedroom to a home gym which saves us a gym membership.

That leaves us a spare for guests. The only room we really don't use after those conversions is a dining room which are wastes of space in most homes these days.

Downsizing is also starting to become a possibility as cities also reduce minimum lot sizes. If the minimum lot size is 5000+ sq ft, the land price will dictate you need to build 2500+ on that lot to recoup the investment. Ultimately this is a good thing unless you want to end up like California.

House prices appreciating at any rate higher than inflation is a sign of a future affordability problem.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

---

So you want to retire to a neighborhood that is destined to become a rental slum?

---

I bought a 1 story right around 2300 sq ft (2 bed + 2 bath) in 2013. It was a real chore finding a house that size in the area where I was searching (The Woodlands). Most everything was closer to 3000 sq ft with 2 levels. This was house #3, and the previous two were also right around 2000 sq ft.

I paid $315k, and HCAD now has my market value at $554k. Houses with pools on my street (2500-2600 sq ft range) have gone for north of $750k.

Downsizing isn't as cheap as people want to believe.

With that said, I do think there has been a gap in the market for higher end but smaller homes. I would say most homes built at this size have been more "builder-grade" (or even "apartment grade"), and I'm definitely a buyer/owner who would pay a little more for nicer finishes. It also helps keep the neighborhood from becoming mostly rentals.

My home was built by a builder (Village) who was trying to do this, but they didn't end up building very many homes. And I would say their finishes and quality weren't quite as high-end or good quality as I would have liked.

Darling also marketed a high-end, smaller product, but most of their homes were closer to 3000 sq ft. And once prices got to $200/sq ft, I was no longer interested in upgrading. Current new construction homes at the 2500-ish sq ft size are going for $700k-$900k in my area.

In my neighborhood, 2500 sq ft, 700K, I'd say about 50% are rental. I can't believe someone would pay $3,800/month to rent a house. A few have put theirs on the market to sell recently so I'm interested to see if owners move in or if it's bought just to rent.

Where do you live?

Coppell Tx

For a large segment of the population it's probably only possible to rent for 3800 vs the 6000+ PITI to buy at 700k

LOL! I grew up in a 790 sq ft, two bedroom, one bath, on a double lot in Waco. I guess based on that a 2500 sq ft house could be called a "McMansion". In my opinion, a 2500 sq ft house is not a mansion of any description.

We downsized from 3200+ sq ft in Houston to a 2100+ sq ft in College Station in a great neighbor hood. While our house has appreciated over the last six years, it is nowhere near $700K.

Yeah, up until I was about 40 yrs old 1,400 sq ft was the most floor space I lived in

When I Google McMansion most say it starts around 3000 sq ft. I'm sorry for the extra 500 sq ft. I was just using current median compared to past median.

Back to the topic of builders now offering housing around ~1500 sq foot, like the 1960s

BTW, I bought 6 years ago too and it's appreciated about 250K

if you are talking about 1500 sq ft living space and then maybe 10k sq ft of barn/garage space... i can support that

As a child, the first two homes I lived in were 2 bedroom frame houses, on cinder blocks, though each had a den added that was on the slab. I have no Idea of the square footage and both have been torn down. I'd guess 900 to 1,000 square feet.

I guess all of us see things our own way, but to me a McMansion is a home much more expensive than I'd live in, or much more expensive than I could afford to live in, regardless of square footage. Typically, price and square footage go hand in hand, but not always. There are some neighborhoods with postage stamp sized lots and houses that are not huge and these are pretty expensive homes.

When we were getting a builder to give us a price on the home we are building, I researched some houses being built fairly close to us as a reference. In a couple of locations, the houses were designated by the amount of street frontage. I forget the actual term used, but there we sections where the houses had 55' wide lots, or 65" wide lots. Had never seen that before.

Interesting, I always thought it was 4/5K and up, shows you what I know.

At any rate there is a shortage of starter homes )my first home we bought was 1786 and was $49,950.

In Waco, my mom's was about 800 sq ft, on the tax rolls at $65K, we sold it for $130K, 2-e years ago,

YouBet said:

---

Reasons:

• Home ownership became a vehicle for wealth storage/growth.
• People tend to want more and are never satisfied with what they have.
• Keeping up with Joneses.
• Lot sizes in urban areas forced people to build up instead of out enabling more sq footage.
• There are others....

My ideal house is a 1 story home that is between 2,000-2,500 sq feet.

---

You Ags down in Texas don't realize how great it is for real estate.

literally on Zillow right now in Bethesda, MD there is a 1,023 square foot cr@ppy old apartment renting for $2600 a month.

TXTransplant said:

---

With that said, I do think there has been a gap in the market for higher end but smaller homes.

---

I don't think there is any argument here. For many years now, the trend has been to build larger and larger 2 story homes. New build, one story homes are unicorns in Dallas metro.

Existing one stories aren't cheap. Our former North Dallas home was one story and also a little over 3k sq ft and depending on condition and street, those houses are $800K-$1.1M.

All new two stories going up in that area were scraping the one stories and the two stories going up were minimum $2M.

Our first Dallas home was in a neighborhood with a lot of one-story homes that were smaller sq footage, but it was a historical neighborhood with strict rules limiting what you could and couldn't do with your home. And those homes are all probably minimum $500K now to get something that doesn't require reno.

Look at "patio homes" for well built/finished one story houses that aren't huge

jamey said:

---

Diggity said:

---

2,500 sqft ain't a McMansion

---

For 700K, close enough. That's a ton of money on insurance and taxes alone even I own it outright.

Growing up the typical house was around 1500 Sq ft and that's plenty

---

My parents moved to Lafayette in 1980 in their late 20s with a preschooler and an infant, built a house in the burbs, it was 2500sf ranch. Interest rate probably 15%.

Then in 90, in their late 30s I'm now 10 and brother is teenager, they built a new suburb special in NW Houston, 2 story house, 4/4. It was 3300sf.

So this isn't a new trend.

To continue the story, in 2002, (they are now empty nesters) they built a custom home in Magnolia, ranch, and it's nearly 4ksf.

Now this year, they move to CO and are closing on a 4ksf ranch (with walk out basement, which is almost half of that)

Just my anecdotal evidence.

Hell my mom grew up in Baton rouge in a 21ksf ranch in the 50s and dad by early high school was in a 2200sf 2 story in Lafayette in the 60s.

Yeah, it's not new. I just looked up the house my parents built in 1977 that I live in from 4 to 18 and its 2,900 sq ft. One story ranch.

TXAGBQ76 said:

---

At any rate there is a shortage of starter homes ,

---

Maybe a regional thing.. in SE denver burbs, 'paired' homes (I guess duplex is offensive) are taking up a lot of the market. 1700-2100sf. Starting the high $500s.




Or.. single family homes that have no lot.. Like this neighborhood right by my house. These were $5-600k new a few years ago.. now are like $650-$750, which isn't 'starter' I suppose.




Still a nice, new house and they are 2200-2500sf.
But def. pushing the limit/definition of a 'single family' home. Move the house another 2' and it becomes paired..

MAS444 said:

---

Geez those all look depressing.

---

I certainly couldn't live without my own yard.. even though I only have ~7ksf lot. I have my own private backyard, a shed, etc.

But when that's your option for $600k as a twenty or young thirty something year old.. you take it.. or you move to KS, or the houston suburbs, and get more for your money. If you can swing it, and stay there 10-15 years, you might be sitting a nice big pile of equity though.

Sure as hell glad I moved in here 12 years ago.

YouBet said:

---

Yeah, it's not new. I just looked up the house my parents built in 1977 that I live in from 4 to 18 and its 2,900 sq ft. One story ranch.

---

Nobody os saying nobody lived in a house bigger than 1500 sq ft before 2000 or whatever


But fact is the median house size I pointed out grew significantly over time as the number of occupants shrank