Replies to post #107189 on ajtj99's Market Pulse

[ajtj99]

jd, I hear ya. Lots of space is unused in a large home.

Last night we had 4-kids sleep in one bedroom (and on the floor) even though they each could have slept in a bedroom by themselves. They wanted to be together.

I remember when I was a kid having friends who slept 4 in a bedroom up through high school, and lots of folks had 6 or more people sharing one bathroom.

One employee of ours grew up with 12 people sharing one bathroom (he's Catholic <G>).

I believe many communities have laws or guidelines regarding how many people can occupy a bedroom, and that may have a little to do with the expansion of homes, just like the advent of baby seat and seat-belt laws meant autos could no longer hold 7-12 people.

The biggest factor in larger home size is likely the willingness of people to take on large amounts of debt, especially after the age of 50.

Your parents probably had a mortgage burning party. People that age now think nothing of taking out a 15-year mortgage with only 20% down. That's a paradigm shift of epic proportions.

The computer and entertainment system have kept people indoors much more than people were 30-40 years ago, so we also have to set aside space in homes for that passive activity.

Finally, people are so sedentary they need to work off their weight gains, so now there's a need for an exercise room.

Basically the expanding homes dovetail with the expansion of debt and waistlines. You could probably chart it and see the correlation.