Reflection on Downsizing and the Worrisome Unsustainability of Real Estate Trends
Mrs. Denmarkguy and I currently live in a house that is basically too big for us. So we know that we are going to move to a smaller place within the next 5 to 10 years or so.
The house made a lot of sense when we moved to the area in 2006, and there was still a high likelihood that we would be entertaining grandkids during summer breaks and our kids were still moving in and out as they were settling into their - at the time - somewhat unstable lives.
Anyway, we periodically look around at what's available in the vicinity and perhaps a little closer to Seattle where both our middle son and daughter live now.
Aside from the overall insanity in the regional price of Real Estate, there is another thing I keep noticing and that I just can't get past.
The Question of Simple AVAILABILITY...
When I look around at the "for sale" listings of real estate in the area and beyond — within a 50 mile (80km) radius or so — the thing I notice more than anything else isn't that stuff is incredibly expensive but that there simply isn't any property that is significantly smaller and more economical. Not saying that there isn't any property for sale, but that there simply isn't anything on the map.
The nifty's thing about the Zillow property search service is that it doesn't merely list what's currently for sale, but if you zoom in far enough you can see the size and valuations of every single piece of property on the map, based on property tax records and previous sales and other data. It's very handy!
The trend that I'm finding to be so disturbing is that I look at areas I know from many years ago and where there once upon a time were a good number of modest houses — that were maybe two bedroom and a little over a thousand square feet — there are now none.
They have either been torn down and something new and bigger built in their place, or they have been expanded to where now the only thing you can find are much larger properties.
Which is not what we need!
It might sound a little weird and potentially whingy, but it feels like we have become victims of the compulsive "luxuryfication" of the world!
Even when I go to look at new construction and fairly outlying areas, it seems like there are no builders who are engaged in the business of creating smaller more affordable homes... everybody is building luxury "McMansions."
Which leaves me pondering the somewhat interesting and slightly paradoxical question of whether or not this is what people genuinely want and that's why these are being built? Or are people ending up buying these properties because they have no other alternatives?
Seems a little fishy to me! The problem being that most people who reach the age of being "empty nesters" historically reach for smaller and more manageable places to live in. And it's not even always a cost consideration, but also an effort consideration. Maintaining a large property is a lot of work!
In addition, what feels a little ironic to me is the fact that so many people these days are talking about downsizing, and "voluntary simplicity," and tiny houses and such things and yet it is as if those things are not anywhere on the map. Why is that?
Of course, it's not that small properties are completely gone from the world! But most of the ones I found were located in somewhat "sketchy" and less desirable locations.
Locations, perhaps, that haven't yet been "gentrified..."
Makes me wonder whether this is another very tangible example of society resisting people's desire to have a little less rather than eternally felling driven to pursue more...
Thanks for reading, and have a great Friday!
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Created at 2023-06-30 00:48 PDT
0870/2125
As someone who saw the tail end of the pre-'08 boom and then the latest boom, it is absurd bow big homes are. Space is nice, but more room means more work, and less outdoor space. There's a lot to be said for 3-season porches, wraparound decks, and other semi-outdoor living spaces. No one here seems to build full basements, either, and it isn't due to the water table. Digging a hole is cheap. But a crawlspace is cheaper, and also faster, and the houses need to be built and sold FAST! It's insane.
I guess the thing I find troubling is the fact that all these (mostly newer) homes are based on what people can afford, rather than on what they actually want/need.
We're hoping to find about a 1000-1200sf 2/1 or 2/2 with a nice yard where we can grow stuff, but it seems like nobody has built those since the 1970s. Just buying a nice piece of land and plopping a manufactured home on it is looking more and more interesting, as an alternative. Manufactured housing is less shit than it used to be, and we'll be nearing 70 when we move, so it doesn't have to last forever...
Honestly, a trailer house on acreage isn't a bad solution if you can just find the acreage.
Maybe for now it is better to stay where you are. Maybe soon the market will change. The trend is everyone packs on condos these days that are overly expensive.
For now, we'll be staying where we are. Time will tell, in another 5 years or so, things might be different.