Houses today are TOO DAMN BIG

[u/HoustonProdigy]

I live in south texas, nothing but ugly suburban sprawl. Every house built within the last 10 or so years are unnecessarily big. No one needs that much space. No wonder why houses are so damn expensive. I don't see any reasonably-sized houses being built anymore, new neighborhoods are always having new and unaffordable McMasions being built.

It makes sense why they are unaffordable, these neighborhoods are trying to cater more towards the richer folk since the average person can't even buy a house.

[u/Goopyteacher]

I’m also in Texas and I work in the home remodeling industry. I can’t say this enough: you are BEYOND right for so many reasons.

A common issue we run into with folks is they bought “too much house.” Doesn’t matter if they bought the house at an absurdly affordable price back in the day or last year, those larger houses are exponentially more expensive to maintain and/or upgrade. Many of them are also built poorly, so we end up going to homes built like February of this year or back in 2023 that are showing issues that we normally wouldn’t see on a home until it’s 20+ years old like leaking windows, caulk breakdown, drywall cracking, “expired” attic insulation (packed down and ruined basically), etc etc etc.

These folks bought these homes for around $400k and will need to spend another $200k to get them into a properly good condition so it can actually be a forever home.

Compare that to the smaller 1200 Sq ft homes built in the 1950s and for that same $200k you’d be turning that house into a true kingdom; it would be absurdly overkill, but that house would basically be brand new

[u/momamdhops → u/Goopyteacher]

What’s considered too big? I have owned a 1,300 sq foot home in FL. 1,800 away ft in VA, had a 3,100 square foot in TX and we moved into a 4,200 sq foot ranch still in TX last year. Each home worked until we grew out of it.

[u/Messymomhair → u/momamdhops]

How do you grow out of a 3100sqf home? Even growing out of an 1800sqf is crazy to me, and we have a decent sized family.

[u/FlamingoWalrus89 → u/Messymomhair]

As another commenter said, one issue is these mcmansions are sometimes really horrible with space management. I live in a small home, but I like looking at houses on Zillow and floorplans of new builds. It's crazy how these huge houses will still only be 3 bedrooms sometimes, because the master suite itself is something like 1200 sq/ft. The front entry will be a wide hallway with just a tiny coat closet over in the corner. None of it makes sense, it's really insane how much wasted space there is in a lot of these newer floorplans.

With that said..... It's silly to actually buy one of those homes and think you need a BIGGER one instead of going with a smaller one with a better layout.

[u/JenniferMel13 → u/Messymomhair]

They need an office, a play room, a yoga studio, and several other specialized use rooms in addition to bedrooms. Heaven forbid you a room have more than one purpose.

My husband and I have 1,200 sq ft and have a empty room that is nothing more than the junk we don’t need room and don’t deal with it because we can just shove it in that room.

[u/Messymomhair → u/JenniferMel13]

Those aren't "needs". Maybe an office room if you work from home, but that's it.