When we start figuring the cost of housing a lot of things go into it.
1. The Purchase Price
2. Finance costs
3. Insurance costs
4. Property taxes
5. Heating and Cooling
6. Repairs and Upkeep as well as upgrades
7. And on and on.
And all that is before you start figuring the costs for furniture and decorating.
In today’s housing market bigger may not be better from the standpoint of how much it costs you to live.
But the costs might be bigger than just financial. They might be much higher from an emotional standpoint.
Most homeowners want to ‘downsize’ or “rightsize” at some point in their lives. But what if you never get that really big house? Typically families want the big house while the kids are growing from preteens to adulthood and then Mom and Dad end up with more house than they want or need in their latter years, assuming they are still a couple. They don’t enjoy having to keep it up and/or remodel as things wear out. They don’t want the high utility bills. The other issue is they may not want to pay the taxes or payments on a large home when they retire on Social Security or other fixed income.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed small houses for families that had enough small bedrooms for family members, larger gathering spaces for activities and entertaining and nice outside spaces. A lot of small ranch houses are designed with similar esthetics. But big houses people have been building lately are not like this at all. They are big, expensive, difficult to furnish and maintain, and they tend to own their buyers, not the other way around.
People end up without enough time, quality or otherwise, to build and maintain loving relationships because of what they bought.
Many people don’t have enough time for love because they work all the time. They either never find love or lose it in their need to buy everything they think they need.
Many families rarely see each other for similar reasons.
First Mom and Dad are working all the time to pay for the house. The kids are latch-key kids who do pretty much whatever they please because no one is watching them who cares about them and what happens to them. Exclusive gated communities offer little in the way of real protection or supervision for these kids. Many manage to find trouble in and around their own homes. Many teen girls who become pregnant get that way at home while Mom and Dad are gone. Drugs are always available and their parent’s bar and medicine cabinets are, too. And finally any time all family members are in the structure they are asleep in their own large spaces and don’t even see each other.
So what if you have a smaller house? All the costs are lower. Maybe one parent can actually be available for parenting and/or home schooling.
But the biggest costs families might avoid could be the emotional costs of what might happen with out of control expenses and out of control kids. Years ago parents supervised all of their children’s activities personally, never leaving their children to someone else. The result of their careful supervision was that some lucky kids avoided many of the pitfalls of teen life. Maybe it’s a worthy goal and pattern for modern life.
Who has all the answers? What about single parents? It’s not easy but it is important.
Is it really a choice between a big house and your relationship and kids? Maybe it is. You decide.
Ron Stone is a financial specialist. His company buys private mortgage notes including non-seasoned mortgages. Learn more about note selling at his websites, Selling A Note and Sell Deed
[tags]buy home, buying home[/tags]
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