That's at least in part because people are expecting their houses to be everything, now. Third spaces have been disappearing, so work or home have to do more and more to fill the gap.
Discussion
Got bad since COVID. I know people building houses with 2 studies, and they don't even have desk jobs. 😂 You just know they're going to end up working on their laptop on the living room couch.
And everyone needs a home gym and each person needs a walk-in closet and etc.
The newest houses I've been in are over 350 m² (3750 ft²) and usually end up with one person living in them because they divorce over the house upkeep and payments.
The best is when they have five bedrooms and no kids. 🥴 What army was supposed to occupy that space?
My wife and I have been thinking about work-from home as we look for a house. That'll probably be the second bedroom. But I'm actually in my "study" most of the day in our apartment, attending virtual meetings and such.
The garage can be the home gym, if you really need one.
My husband is in the study, but I'm at the desk in the living room. The study used to be mine, but I got displaced.
I don't have meetings, so I'm glad he's loud-talking into his headset in there. Meetings all day.
What are prices like in your area?
Currently we're looking at 3-bed, 2-bath homes, 1000-1400 sq ft, reasonably close to the city (so not in brand-new developments on the outskirts), with a decent-sized yard. There's a reasonable amount of inventory in the $300k-400k range.
We're shooting for the lower end of that range, so we're waiting for the right one to pop up.
That doesn't actually sound so bad. Something like that is going for like $500k out here, now, and we live in the boonies.
Yeah it's definitely better here than in some places. Though the market is kinda slow for those homes because people don't want to lose their low interest rates from 2020-2022.
Prices on comparable homes are in the $250k-350k range in some other cities/towns where inventory is higher.
👀 That's actually a great deal. A house edging towards 1400 sq ft in my area would go for close to £750k+! Maybe even more now since so many people are trying to take advantage of the current low supply within the market.
That's what prices are like over in California right now. A lot depends on location. The outlying towns are booming until they get absorbed into the suburban sprawl (see Houston). In geographically limited regions like the Bay Area or LA, eventually you can't grow any more, so prices just go up.
there was an architect/designer advocate for building a tiny wfh shed in the backyard. believe the argument was it is healthy to create boundaries between family and work, even if it is 15 steps away from your home. i daydream about this setup on slog days.