patrick.net

xenogear3:

You must not be from around here. Or else if you are you grew up in and never left a privileged wealthy enclave in the region.

Another way of asking the question is, "are homes outside of the Bay Area really that big?"

1200 3/2 SF dwelling is livin' large by the standards of most urbanite people in the world; even to urban folks in wealthy societies like Europe, Japan.

Americans are just too materialistic.

Imagine if Americans confined ourselves to 1200 3/2; we would not have such supersized mortgages borrowed to pay for such supersized homes, with supersized interest payments and supersized utility bills to heat and cool our supersized homes; without superrsized space in our supersized homes to store our supersized accumulation of Chinamade junk; less supersized filling of the supersized pallets at supersized Costco or supersized Walmart would mean less supersized trade deficit with supersized Communist China.

Another aspect, the Bay Area has superb weather. For many from all sorts of demographics, the house is just a place to sleep, shower, cook, eat, and for students, to do studying and homework.

Looking at the FSBO I was checking out I see :)

Homes around here that are detached have much more scalability in terms of floor plan. The rooms are probably smaller than your standards, but it is the norm here.

If you check out San Francisco where most homes are stuck next to each other, you can probably have 1500 sq feet, but still only have 2 bedrooms. A bedroom without a window is not really a bedroom to my standards. It is also not in compliance with codes.

The lots around here are usually from 25' to 35' wide, by 100' deep.

Any home that claims a high square footage around here (1400-1500+) probably includes a finished basement.

I've always been happy in my home of 1280 sq ft. I have a wife and three kids. The layout is great and having less space means I acquire less junk. Big houses don't impress me one bit - it seems they are nothing but a lot of unused space. I prefer a yard.

I live in a 1700 sqft place on an acre +. I figured it out, I could live in 500 sqft and do just fine as long as I have the acre part of it.

Official size is called "Above Grade Living Area Total SqFt", which does not includs unfinished space and ground level. So, you can assume wooden deck, unfinished garage and basement space is not inclued.

Yeah, I think 1200 sqft is still little small for SFH though, that could be adequate for a small family. Something I don't like about homes inside the city like san diego is the fact those home usually built on small lot. There's not much space you can call backyard.

i'm with middleman. My place was at one time a 3/2 now a 2+den/family room. It's 1400sqft on a 7800sqft lot. It's pretty average for 1950s Orange County homes. For 2 people, 1400sqft is pretty darn big. The main bedroom is 12x13 and the other is 11x12 so they are not huge but comfortably fit a king size bed. No walk in closets though.

We also have a 574sqft garage (almost 3 car) that is not including in living space but there is a room built in there that is going to be my workshop.

sybrib, can you leave politics out the discussion here? if you don't like Chinese made goods, don't buy it then, see how long you can last in your supersized ego

sybrib, can you leave politics out the discussion here? if you don't like Chinese made goods, don't buy it then, see how long you can last in your supersized ego