Younger Home Buyers, Smaller Houses
The average size of new homes has
been dropping in recent years. If you peruse the "recently sold"
listings in your own neighborhood, you might be surprised to see that most
sales are of smaller homes.
Many of the younger home buyers I work with are looking for
smaller houses.
Should you consider buying a home
yourself? Living in a small home has many benefits.
8 reasons why you’ll
actually be happier in a smaller house:
1. Easier to maintain and clean.
Anyone who has owned a house knows the amount of time, energy, and effort to
maintain it. All things being equal, a smaller home requires less of your time,
energy, and effort to accomplish that task.
2. Less expensive. Smaller
homes are less expensive to purchase and less expensive to keep (insurance,
taxes, heating, cooling, electricity, etc.). A smaller house can mean a smaller
house payment and lower energy and maintenance costs. It costs less to furnish
a small house because you don't have two living rooms you just have the one
that gets used.
3. Less debt and less risk.
Dozens of on-line calculators will help you determine “how much house you can
afford.” These formulas are based on net income, savings, current debt, and
monthly mortgage payments. They are also based on the premise that we should
spend ”28% of our net income on our monthly mortgage payments.” But if we can
be more financially stable and happier by only spending 15%… then why would we
ever choose to spend 28?
4. Easier to live simply. You will be less tempted to accumulate and to buy it in the first place. Moving into smaller home forces you to intentionally pare down your belongings.
5. More time. Many of the
benefits above (less cleaning, less maintaining, live simply...) result in the
freeing up of our schedule to pursue the things in life that really matter –
you can use the extra time to read, play with your kids, cook healthful dinners
or enjoy your hobbies.
6. Easier to sell/ Wider market
to sell. By its very definition, a smaller, more affordable house is
affordable to a larger percentage of the population than a more expensive, less
affordable one. Also, energy costs continue to rise. That means
energy-efficient homes, especially small energy-efficient homes, will be in
high demand in the future.
7. Quality indulge. It costs
a small fortune to upgrade a big apartment. You have to buy so much more that
you may have to make sacrifices in terms of quality. Living in a small house
means you can splurge on quality upgrades because you have less to buy.
8. Less environmental impact. A smaller home requires less resources to build and less resources to maintain. And that benefits all of us, especially young generations.
There's no doubt that small homes
are seeing a resurgence as people realize how cozy, comfortable and inexpensive
they can be. Smaller homes just feel good, and living in one makes it easier to
be close with your family. Plus, the cost savings of smaller homes can really
add up over the long term.
Your home is a very personal
decision that weighs in a large number of factors. Only you know all the
variables that come into play when making your decision.
I just think you could be happy in
smaller house with quality… rather than the other way around.
