Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-08-2019, 03:43 PM
 
4,170 posts, read 6,858,598 times
Reputation: 7142

Advertisements

^ If you love it, sounds like no need to change it!

However, you can certainly go much, much smaller and still hold company over night or separate kids and adults.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-09-2019, 02:38 PM
 
1,530 posts, read 1,394,719 times
Reputation: 1183
Everyone has a different meaning of an American dream. For some earning dollars at bare minimum wage having escaped poverty and poor living conditions in a third world country is living an American dream while some need showbiz celebrity status to feel having achieved it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2019, 06:25 AM
 
Location: Washington, DC
4,178 posts, read 2,632,826 times
Reputation: 3659
Quote:
Originally Posted by kent_moore View Post
As a new immigrant to this country, I was overwhelmed with the house sizes here in the US. Back in my home country, we were living in 1000 sqt 2-storey house sitting on a 860 sq ft of land. It has a one car port. The moment you enter the house is already our family room. I still own the house and its rented for $290 a month, it fully covers our mortgage.

Now, we're in a 1.5 storey 1900 sqft 3BR house in a suburban Phoenix. The house is sitting in almost half the land area whihc is 7000 sqft land.

It is probably too small for a family of 6 (2 adults and 4 kids) by American standards but it is already too big for us. We converted our dining and living room into one big indoor play area for the kids. We dine in our eat-in kitchen. 2 kids share in each common bedroom. The whole area of the house is busy. My wife and I spend most of our time in the kitchen and family room while the kids love their big play area. I can't complain though I wish (1) we have a separate bathroom for the kids, ours is jack and jill type and (2) there's another decent size bedroom for the guests.

I know a family who just recently moved in here. There are only 4 of them in the household but the house they bought is a 3000 sqm 5-BR house and 4 car garage. They bought the brand new so it is expensive and it is way way too far from the city. I mean, if I were them, I would just buy a 3BR house and save the extra money.
I think the last situation depends on how long they would like to stay. If the family has 2 teenagers, in 10-15 years, they'll have their own kids, which means extra rooms in case the grandkids come over. I think 3 bedrooms works for some, but if you have multiple kids or are planning on having kids, it won't be enough.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2019, 07:16 AM
 
13,395 posts, read 13,434,659 times
Reputation: 35711
Quote:
Originally Posted by tlarnla View Post
Since when is the American Dream about owning "a big home"? I thought it was about owning "a home".
^^Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm specifically looking for a house under 2000 sq ft.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2019, 01:39 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC
4,178 posts, read 2,632,826 times
Reputation: 3659
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlygal View Post
^^Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm specifically looking for a house under 2000 sq ft.
Yeah that's still plenty of space for many people.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2019, 02:27 PM
 
Location: New Mexico U.S.A.
26,527 posts, read 51,587,820 times
Reputation: 31323
Our first house was three bedroom, one bath, carport and a small yard, in the 1980's. I put a new roof on it (tore off the shingles and asphalt paper, applied new ones), enclosed the carport (with new modern windows).

Our second house was a three story four bedroom and two bathroom home with garage and walkout family room (house was on a slope). It had a gigantic two car garage with 12 foot ceilings and decent crawlspace in the attic and small toilet and sink.

Our third house was a three bedroom and two bathrooms and a large two car garage. A smaller yard, but more modern home with 10 foot ceilings. We have lived in this house 20 years...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2019, 02:49 PM
 
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
7,673 posts, read 5,398,426 times
Reputation: 16124
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation View Post
The upstairs formal living room was never really used as a living room. My parents have a couch and a couple of recliners in there, a chess table, and misc. furniture, but no one has sat in there in years. It's a glorified storage room.
Recliners in a formal living room?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2019, 03:16 PM
 
Location: Wartrace,TN
7,958 posts, read 12,646,497 times
Reputation: 16196
7 dots at the toilet but only one at the sink?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-11-2019, 10:12 AM
 
Location: Round Rock, Texas
13,440 posts, read 15,384,782 times
Reputation: 18959
We have 3700 sq ft. 4/3.5 and we love it, it's just right. No desire to live in a smaller home at this time. We are a family of four.

REally, it's all about layout. A 4,000 sq ft box (we lived in one of those), with the rooms just a chain of rectangles and squares and tons of open spaces gives the impression of being immense/overly big, with extra useless rooms.

Our home is older, more traditional, cozy. Compartmentalized in some areas, open in others. But the openness isn't to the point of being vast. The home never gives the impression of being cavernous, which is one of many reasons why I love it so much. We use all of the rooms at some point in time, whether once or twice a year, once a month, or every day.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-11-2019, 03:22 PM
 
1,078 posts, read 931,117 times
Reputation: 2867
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wartrace View Post
7 dots at the toilet but only one at the sink?
That’s about in line with the statistics on hand washing
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top