patrick.net

sawsare says

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

It's actually interesting that he was talking about being against Chinese made goods. Had all jobs been allocated back into the USA, then housing prices would rise as there are more wages to pay for mortgages.

Currently, with all the Chinese made goods, it means that there are less wages in the USA to pay for mortgages; which means prices of homes need to go down - which they have not.

I think a lot of the newer homes in the bay area are larger in general. It's just that the 1920-1970's seem to be ranch style, with about 1200sq/f.

Forget about the 1200sq/f homes, you must have missed the homes that were 600sq/f, and on 2500sq/f lots, or less :)

My first house was 850 sq ft and with the additional space with the basement, it was big enough for me. I might still be living there if it wasn't in a less than desireable area (and I didn't get married). My In my new house, the garage alone is more than 850 sq feet, and it has an unfinshed upstairs that's around 600 sq ft. Having all the extra space is really nice, but I really don't utilize it. I have a basement that's over 1,000 sq ft, but only have 10 boxes of Xmas decorations down there. I have a formal dining room that only gets used for company, a game room and several bedrooms that I rare go into. If I were to total up all the rooms I actually use on a daily bases, it would be around the 2,000 sq ft range and it would only be that much because the rooms are so big. The master bedroom is larger than two standard sized bedrooms (something like 10x20) the kitchen and living rooms are over sized too.

My two-person apartment in Tokyo is 400 square feet, and there's a family of three next door in the same sized space. It's mostly couples or two-roommate pairs in my building, but I think there are a few families of four also.

Very, very few families in urban Japan have more than about 800 square feet. I think Hong Kong is similar.

What bothers me when I see that Zillow page is the small-by-urban-standards ratio of livable area to lot size: 1180/3400! The anti-automobile activist in me looks at the picture and wishes they could build another whole house on that empty space in the front, rather than waste it on parking spaces!

Tokyo is just as earthquake-prone as SF, but they still manage a 300% indoor-area-to-lot-size ratio even for SFHs. That's nearly ten times what this "small" house has.

Having moved from Oklahoma my wife and I have had to go through an adjustment period. We currently live in a 1,046 sq ft 3/2/2. The living space is fine but the closets are tiny - that's where we struggle (I'm married w/ a 70lb dog and 2 cats, no kids). We have multiple hobbies that require a lot of equipment so closet space is at a premium (SCUBA diving, backpacking, motorcycles, surfing, skiing, shooting, sewing/quilting, etc).

We figure 1,400 sq ft would be perfect for us, even if/when we have a kid. The bigger the house the more it costs to maintain, heat/cool, taxes, etc.

I am renting a 1600sqft house in TX and it is honestly way too much space (live with fiancee, no kids, 1 cat 1 dog). Coming to Bay Area CA soon and looking forward to "squeezing" into a 1000-1200sqft house again. :-)