patrick.net

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. :-)