It is an ill wind that blows no good at all . –English Proverb
Indeed.
A silver lining to the historic collapse of the American housing market is emerging and the long term implications to the housing industry and the lifestyle of Americans in general are profound.
With new home sales down 80% since 2005 (yes, you read that right) and no recovery in sight, long term changes in the behavior of Americans buying homes was inevitable. In comparison, sales of existing homes for the same period are only down 28%. The trend right now appears to be strongly away from McMansions and toward more reasonably sized, affordable single family dwellings.
This trend can only bode well for the long term greening of the housing industry. Smaller dwellings mean less electricity, less petroleum and other raw materials used to manufacture housing parts, as well as overall reduction in demand for “new” of everything from appliances to window curtains. This is good, in my opinion, as this demand would be much better utilized toward the growth of small, local businesses, NOT big box retailers like Home Depot and WalMart.
Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, speaks to this trend in the short video below. We have build every single, free standing, suburban home this country will ever need or so believes an urban planner that Sally heard speak at a Conference in 2009.
Where will the growth come from in the next 100 years? Small farms and small, local businesses of course!
‘Ole to a strong, independent America once again!
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Hi Sarah,
We moved from a 2500 square foot home with a small yard to a 900 square foot cottage on my in-laws 15 acres. We have three small children and I homeschool so we are home a lot. Honestly,I love having a smaller home. It made us realize how much we don’t really “need”. We have purchased 6 acres a few miles from where we are now and plan to build a small farmhouse there and save room for our chickens, goats, dogs and children to roam and play. And have plenty left for garden space!
I have spent years waiting until we can move our 7 person family into a bigger house, we currently reside in a 1400 sq ft home with 1 bathroom. However, it is on a very good size lot. Unfortunately we are in the Phoenix area which is one of the areas hardest hit by this housing collapse, houses here are down by almost 50% from it’s peak in around 2005-2006. To add insult to injury, my husbands job was a project manager in residential construction.
In the last 6 months or so I have become more and more comfortable with our home the way it is and content with maybe having to stay here for the rest of our lives. We have learned to do with so much less and our constantly reevaluating our amount of possessions and purging where needs be. Not only do we have to consume less to live in a house this size, but I think it also brings us closer as a family. There is no escaping to the other end of the house, and while that sometimes can be a bit frustrating (especially for my soon to be teenage daughter), I think it teaches us very valuable lessons regarding relationships and how to co-exist. I hope that makes sense.
We also are committed to growing as much food as we can on our property. We have chickens, turkeys, goats and soon bees. We are in the process of planting fruit trees, grapes vines, blackberry bushes, an herb garden and vegetable garden. This fall my kids will sell pumpkins that they have grown to earn money. We are fortunate to live in an area where we can garden all year round.
I would never give up our small house and big yard for a big house and small yard.
I totally get where you are coming from Lanise. Along a similar vein, we only have ONE tv in our house and it is in the family room. I know of very few folks who have only one tv these days. Most have at least 3 and maybe more. My kids have often questioned this and I have told them many times that I would rather all of us be in the family squabbling about what to watch together than everyone have his/her own tv in another part of the house and be watching something on their own by themselves. There is no way I want my kids off watching tv and not interacting with the family as a unit. I realize some folks have no tv at all, but I’m not sure about that approach either as teaching kids moderation is so important. If they’ve never watched tv, they are likely to go wild watching it too much when they go off on their own. So teaching wise habits while still in the home with the family is a good balance, I think.
Sarah, this is totally unrelated… I was going to post on FB, but thought everyone would be able to see what I’d posted and I lack the anonymity I have here! Because my question is somewhat personal: I’m wondering thoughts on Birth control? I had the copper iud inserted maybe 5 months or so ago, thinking it would be better than anything with hormones, but am having some side effects (cramping, weight gain). I wondered what your thoughts are on the copper IUD specifically, and also on other ideas for birth control. We have 4 young kids and that’s enough for now, although we don’t want to do anything permanent *in case*. Thanks!!
Hi Chanelle, check out the comments to this post – lots of helpful info. Not sure the copper IUD is such a good idea though:
//www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/02/how-the-pill-can-harm-your-future-childs-health/
Thank you for this wise article and video. It is so important to “support” the early American independent spirit which fought for true freedom, which comes in part through not being in debt. I think of one episode of Little House on the Prairie where Laura and Mary went to by a writing slate for school. The shop owner said they needed a slate pencil to write with. They only had 1 penny for 1 slate pencil. The owner offered to put the other on ‘credit’ for Pa and give the girls the 2nd writing implement so they would have one for school that day. The girls kindly refused saying Pa would never want to owe anyone. They would instead be content to share.
When we bought our house people thought we were crazy for buying *only* a 1700 sq ft, 3 bed 2 bath home. Even more crazy was the thought that we had no intention to upgrade, ever. Coming from a family that purchases a marriage home that, barring moving to another state, lives in it until the death of either partner I felt like we had purchased quite luxuriously. Although it’s not fancy, as time goes on we will personalize and upgrade. The only thing that is lacking is land. We don’t have enough space for much of a garden let alone for my dream of chickens and a goat. Still, not having that space means I can put more effort in supporting local farmers.
Nice to see there’s a trend towards downsizing, since if you were to believe HGTV, everybody and their brother is spending a million dollars on a house and won’t even look at anything without granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances!
I’ve lived most of my life in an old trailer and love it! No worries about pricey mortgage.
Our constant goal is to down-size, and produce more. Yes, there times when our small house seems too tight, but it’s also easy to heat and keep clean. It’s not just the house size either. When we first moved in we looked at the old wood floors and thought, “Oh my goodness! They’ll have to be covered to ever look nice!” I am SO glad we were unable to swing that financially! The more we walk on these lovely old floors the more we fall in love with the clean lines and simplicity of them. The by-word for our lives now is simple, simple, simple. Not only moving everyday towards more ways of caring for and providing our own good home-grown food, but also in practicing the art of, “living on less and loving it more”.
Hi Susie, we have beat up wood floors too and I LOVE them. I suppose we will eventually have to get them resurfaced, but it won’t be anytime soon.
We are planning to down size matter of fact, I spent the whole last week going through things that can be donated. I have tons of boxes that will be delivered to charity next week. The most fun times we had as a family was when we lived in very small apartments in Sweden and Spain. We spent more times doing things instead of sitting home. Smaller living has so many benefits, as you mentioned, less energy is used for example.
We squeeze ourselves (currently husband, wife, 3 children, dog and 6 ducklings) in a 2 bed, 1 bath, 880 square foot 1950’s cottage.
I’ll bet you’re not house poor either .. meaning drowning in debt. Whatever you lack in square feet is more than made up for in peace of mind from not being upside down in an overvalued, oversized house I’m sure.