Above
the doorway in our kitchen in Connecticut, my wife Connie posted a wooden sign
years ago. It says, "SIMPLIFY.
SIMPLIFY. SIMPLIFY." The
repetition is for my benefit since I can be a little slow on the uptake.
Consistent with her theme of
simplicity, Connie bought a book called the "Not So Big House" when it was
first published 10 years ago, and then
The desire to
show off a big home may survive the housing crisis.
a few years later
bought author Sarah Susanka's follow-up, "Creating the Not So Big House." Connie would often gush out excerpts
from the books, almost always, it seemed, while I was trying to get through the
sports section of the local paper.
"Pshaw," I would say, "people want to show off their wealth through
their homes. They won't go for
that smaller house stuff."
Well,
as typical, it turns out she was mostly right, and a few years ahead of the
curve. I say "mostly" to leave
myself a little wiggle room, because I think the trend to smaller homes may be
temporary. Spending habits
certainly change as a result of the economy, but human nature will survive into
the next boom. Showing off what
you have is an American trait that may never go out of style.
Still, for the next few years at
least, homes will shrink.
According to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report, new homes last year
decreased in size
In 2008, the average size of
a new home shrunk by 7%, or the equivalent of one room.
by seven
percent, to an average 2,065 square feet.
The loss -- or gain, as my wife and Ms. Susanka would argue -- equals
the size of one room. This marked
the first annual drop in new home size in the last 15 years.
The merger of demographics and a
housing market in crisis is shaving home sizes. Baby boomers like my wife and I are moving from our primary
homes now that the children are leaving the nest. We simply don't need the space. With the savaging of IRAs and other retirement-oriented
portfolios, boomers are not about to risk running out of money in their 90s by
buying a trophy home they don't need in their 60s.
As Connie and I ponder what kind of
home to move to in a few years, we look at how we use the space in our current
house. Guests tend to congregate
in our kitchen and
the sunroom beyond; when we have more
Unless overcome by some irrational desire, we will
not have a traditional living room in our next house.
than four guests for dinner, we serve
them in our dining room. But other
than Thanksgiving and a few other dates, we rarely entertain more than four
guests at a time. Our next home
could easily combine the kitchen with a dining area geared toward intimate
small dinners but also with the ability to expand into a larger space for the
occasional big gathering. I'm not
quite sure how we will do that, but my wife and Ms. Susanka will figure it out.
On a similar note, and unless
struck by some irrational last-minute desire, we will not have a formal living
room in our next home either. I
can count on one hand the number of times we entertain guests in the living
room in a year -- or the times our friends entertain us in their own living
rooms. In our experience, the
living room is dead.
The biggest decision about space in
our next home involves our children and, someday, their children. Some couples I've interviewed have
actually told me they wanted
a home near a hotel so that their children, and especially their grandchildren,
would not be underfoot 24x7 during
Some couples banish their children and
grandchildren to a nearby hotel during visits.
visits. Although I understand the motivation, we won't want our kids
and theirs to commute to our home when they visit. However, we will want to protect our own space. In planning our next home, you can bet
we will work hard at a design that puts the guest areas at the opposite end of
the house from our master bedroom.
The test for far enough away is that I cannot hear our visitors flush
their toilets.
Naturally,
sniffing a marketing edge, national developers like Toll Brothers are starting
to promote heavily their smaller home offerings. Age-restricted developments like The Del Webb Sun City
communities have been producing smaller homes for years, but they tend to lack
the fit and finish to satisfy many well-resourced baby boomers. Local developers are now jumping into
the fray too. Yesterday, I
received an email from the well-regarded Hampton Lake in Bluffton, SC, that
attached an article about the smaller home trend. The local Island Packet quoted Ms. Susanka and featured
Hampton Lake. You can read it by
clicking here.
The
cost to build a new home these days in the southern U.S. is lower than it was
just a few years ago. Construction
companies and developers struggling to survive in a dismal housing economy have
cut their costs and their prices.
Still, in the most popular areas for golf communities, count on
construction costs of $175 to $200 per square foot for a nicely appointed
home. Cutting out a room or two
from a 3,500 square foot house, for example, could save as much as $70,000, way
more than most private golf clubs are charging for initiation fees these
days.
The smaller space will eliminate the need to worry about furnishing another room, reduce the time it takes you to dust and vacuum, and remove any worries about whether you are using that room enough to justify what you paid for the house. Best of all, less space will help you
Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
to golf communities, Golf
Course Home Network promotes its clients' developments. Every reference to them is great, and
they all sound like paradise and great investments. Of course, in reality, none are perfect. (Note: We have chosen a different model here, never charging fees
to anyone -- developer or homebuyer -- in order to maintain our
objectivity. We go so far as to
pay our green fees when we play a community's golf course.)
