Buying a house is a huge decision (at least it should be). Statistically, over the last 50 years houses have gotten bigger and families have gotten smaller. Like so many other things, we now feel that we “need” a huge half-empty house. There can definitely be an upside to owning a ‘big’ house (which is why people do it), such as more space, guest rooms, specialty rooms, long term investment, etc. However, bigger isn’t always better.
I used to always want a ‘big’ house until recently. Thanks to a blog post by Frugal Dad, I realized that with a small house:
There is less to clean
Potentially lower property taxes
Smaller mortgage (and quicker to pay off)
Less furniture is needed to “fill” it
Easier to live off one income
Less isolating from family
Lower utility bills
…and all of that equals LESS stress and MORE freedom; the two things we so often forget to examine in our lives because we can’t see them. What do you think?
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Totally agreed … sad story, though: I’m buying a new house and just found out I can’t get an AA mortgage in Wisconsin. :(
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 am
As i was reading this i was thinking that having a big house is like having a big purse……it just makes you think you need more things to fill it up, when you really don’t! I do see the benefit of maybe a guest room, but most of my guests would be perfectly happy taking over my room and kicking me out to the sofa ;) I have a fairly small house and it suits me just fine. Less places for my 2 year old to hide