'Fore' For Much Longer?

It's funny how the universe works. Just days after discussing neighborhoods designed for the elderly, this morning, I stumbled upon this article at MarketWatch.com. In brief, it outlines how retirees are re-thinking the cliched idea of a golf-course retirement in sunny Florida and how, "today 'cost of living' is the most important consideration on where to locate."




Also mentioned is a related article discussing the downsizing of the size of the average new home for the first time in 27 years, a topic I've covered before, too.

Regardless of your thinking about the housing market, it appears retirees are making a shift in their priorities. We'll see what kind of sea change this brings to the housing industry as a whole.

dotloop.com

What Would Thoreau Build?

Keen readers may be noticing a running theme throughout the last few posts. Smaller houses, less consumption of resources, heck, even enjoying your home as its value plummets.

Is your humble DotLoop blogger taking crazy pills? After all, we're in America, the land of the 15 pound burger, of the Big Gulp, of McMansions. And of course, the all-American transportation device: the SUV. Bigger is better. Bloated is beautiful. From sea to shining sea.

And even though everyone is hitching a ride on the Green Revolution bandwagon, if we want to go green, well, there's an app for that. It's okay to have a four-car garage as long as that garage is filled with hybrid Explorers, right?

Indeed, in America, it seems the answer to our environmental issues is the same answer to most problems: buy something.

Thoroughly Thoreau

But what if we took a different approach? What if we boiled it all down to what we really needed, not what the latest ads on TV compel us to think we need? What if we valued our time more than our stuff? How would that change us?

What if we took a nod from that crazy nut from 19th Century Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau? Thoreau famously abdicated himself from society for two years, two months, and two days and spent his time on Walden Pond. He simplified his life to the bare bones, and only had to work six weeks a year to sustain his food and energy resources. The rest of the time he spent on any activity he wished.

The $826 Home

In comparison with the average 2500 sq foot home of today, Thoreau built himself a cabin that was a mere 10' by 15'. Below is a list of materials Thoreau used, from Walden:

Board's: $8.03 1/2, mostly shanty boards

Refuse shingles for roof and sides: $4.00

Laths: $1.25

Two second-hand windows with glass: $2.43

One thousand old brick: $4.00

Two casts of lime: $2.40. That was high.

Hair: $0.31. More than I needed

Mantle-tree iron: $0.15

Nails: $3.90

Hinges and screws: $0.14

Latch: $0.10

Chalk: $0.01

Transportation: $1.40. I carried a good part on my back.

In all: $28.12 1/2

In 2008 dollars, that would equal $826.26. When's the last time you built a house (on a wooded lot, to boot!) for under $1000.00?

The Cost of a Thing

Think about all of the stuff you bought within the last decade that you only used a few times. Think about all the wasted items that did nothing more than collect dust, or take up more space. Maybe you even expanded your home's size just so you could store the latest trinkets from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Maybe you even bought an extra storage space within the last decade. Ironic, of course, considering the rise of the storage industry's expansion from 289 million square feet in 1984 to nearly 2.2 billion square feet by the end of 2007 coincided with the rise of McMansions.

Maybe in light of this burst housing bubble, we should reevaluate what makes a home a home, and see value in the intangibles. Maybe bigger is better, as in, a bigger life, and not necessarily a bigger house.

Maybe we should do a cost analysis the way Thoreau did: "The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."

Maybe it all comes down to three simple words, spoken by the world's most famous tax dodger and transcendentalist: "Simplify! Simplify! Simplify!"

Small Homes: Why Less Is More

Consider this: since 1973, the average family home has increased by 49%. In 1980, the average family home was 1595 square feet. By 2009, the size swelled to just under 2500 square feet.

The irony, of course, is that almost every appliance found within a home – from computers to washing machines—has shrunk in size. Even 54” big-screen TVs can be now placed on the wall, making the footprint they demand negligible.

Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with large houses—if they’re used. But how many people actually use their dining room? When’s the last time your “exercise room” was used to well, exercise?

In fact, the days of the McMansion with two-story entryways and its own closet for spice racks may be behind us. The trend seems to be shifting to smaller, more manageable homes. And you can thank the economy for this shift. According to a recent Better Homes & Garden magazine survey, nearly a third-32%-of new home buyers said that they expect their new home will be smaller than their current one. Many talked about unused space and the extra costs associated with it.

Behind every 7,000 square foot home are two air conditioners and a hefty electric bill. Indeed, two-story tall entryways and "open" family rooms may look grand and impressive when one first walks in, but considering how much money it takes to heat spaces like those--spaces that are not even liveable--most new homes are doing away with such ornate features.

Not So Big Not So New

Smaller homes have always been around (my house is 704 square feet and was built in 1926) and has been covered in such books as The Not So Big House and the 2006 book Small House on a Little Planet. But the recession has only heightened our cultural awareness of the shear amount of wasted space that has been mortgaged within the past ten or twenty years.

McMansion McMakeover

Despite the current trend towards smaller homes, the last decade has seen a plethora of smaller, homes razed for larger, more ornate (sometimes, even castle-like) McMansions, severely distorting old neighborhoods.

With the recession, however, such garish over-consumption may be a thing of the past, as more and more people are realizing that oftentimes, small is beautiful when it comes to a home.