Bigger is better....truth or myth?

Wonder who it was that first came up with the slogan "bigger is better"?  I will agree that in a few very specific circumstances bigger might indeed be better, but generally speaking bigger just means "bigger headaches".

I read in the paper yesterday that now that the US economy is recovering, the size of newly built homes is growing again.  It said that new homes now average over 2200 square feet, but I can tell you that around here (Dallas), that's a relatively modest starter house.  The vast majority seem to be well in excess of 3000 feet.  For families with kids this might make sense, but not for empty nesters (and there are a lot of us).

Build 'em big.  Build a lot of 'em.  

I haven't built a home smaller than 5500 square feet in years.  Right now I'm adding on to a 6300 square footer I built 2 years ago ^ , bringing it up to around 9000 feet.  I can't imagine living in a house that large.  It just isn't my thing.  (But of course, if they're intent on giving their hard earned money to a builder, it might as well be me. ;)

I had a large(-ish) home myself a few years ago, but with the recession of '08 approaching I knew that its value was only going to drop, so I bailed when I could and did fairly well.  

The main reason I bailed, however, was because I was tired of paying all the property taxes, the insurance, the utilities, the maintenance, the yard upkeep, the cleaning, etc.  I was getting no satisfaction from ownership, and in fact it was an albatross around my neck.

I began thinking about it and realized we actually only used about 1300 square feet, the rest just being space that was never used.  All that hassle wasn't worth it to my teeny ego.  Or maybe I'm just lazy? (Full disclosure.)

We rented a 2 bed-2 bath apartment* in a nice area and found it to be plenty big enough....after getting rid of everything we knew we were never going to use again.  Before long we realized even that was too much (the spare bedroom became a catch-all junk room) so we downsized again to a one bedroom apartment.  The peace of mind knowing that I have virtually no chores to do around the house/apt is very liberating.

This would do just fine.

But now here's the crazy part:  I sometimes think it would be nice to build another home for K and me.  I could make it state-of-the-art, energy efficient, super durable, etc, but I would want absolutely no more than 1,000 square feet, and there's the rub.  No city around here will allow a home to be built that small.

Why, you ask?  (Go ahead, ask.)  Because the cities like all the property tax $$$$ big houses bring in.  Screw what the people want, this is what the cities want.  The tail is wagging the dog.  

So the next time you hear some bureaucrat from the Department of Overpaid Gubment Employment preach that we need to preserve water and power, use less everything, recycle more, live smarter and such, remind them of this hypocrisy.

S

* Sometime I should write about my downsizing experience.

Difficult conundrum

Over lunch recently my brother and I were discussing current events, mainly the budget deficit and the cuts being contemplated to reduce it. We agreed that Big Business had a stranglehold on Congress, getting pretty much what they wanted in the way of tax breaks, special deductions, regulatory loopholes, etc.  We should do away with things such as subsidies to very profitable companies who could easily fund their own R&D on what was likely to be even more highly profitable technologies, subsidies to agribusiness, and so forth.


But then I said (and remember, bro and I are custom homebuilders) the government should begin phasing out the home mortgage interest deduction.  Whoa!  It was like somebody farted in church.  "How dare you!  That's MY deduction", he said.  "Why would anyone own a house if they didn't get their deduction?"  I asked if, when he got his last house paid for, he suddenly didn't want it anymore?  *silence*


And that's the problem.  Everyone wants everyone else to give up their special breaks, but they don't want to give up their own.


Back to my example:  [I believe] the US is the only industrialized nation who still offers a home mortgage interest deduction.  The idea was to promote home ownership, but I contend it's now "the American Dream" and doesn't need promoting any longer.  In fact, you'd be surprised how many homes sold today are purchased with cash.  By paying cash buyers don't get a tax write-off, but they're buying anyway.


Australia phased out their similar deduction years ago and ownership remained steady at around 65%, the same as it is here.  Remember several decades ago when the interest deduction on auto loans and consumer loans was phased out?  Did we stop buying cars without the interest deduction?  Of course not.  Did we stop using our credit cards because we couldn't write off the interest we paid MasterCard any longer?  Hahaha.  Hardly!


It's going to be painful, but we ALL need to wean ourselves off of our special deductions and start paying enough in to cover what we're paying out.  Sorry rich folks, but that means you, too.  


S