Anonymous wrote:Is downsizing after kids go off to college ideal or stay put in chance they come back and have a family and have the same house they grew up in to bring their families to visit? That's like 10-20 years away tho. 2000sq ft for two old people or downsize to a condo
~1000sq ft?

Not worth it unless you don't want your kids to come visit. My parents bought a tiny one bedroom house now and it's basically makes It impossible to visit them. I'm not spending money on 2 hotel rooms just to come visit with the grabkids. It's just too much and it indicates to me that they don't really care to see me anyway or they would have actually bought a place that has room for their kids to visit.

We are DINK and have a 4500 sq ft newer build in the suburbs. We really like it, but admittedly it's too much space. We couldn't find a SFH that had the things we wanted in a smaller size. We have rooms that we didn't even bother to furnish. It's too bad this is all that gets built in this area.

Anonymous wrote:Is downsizing after kids go off to college ideal or stay put in chance they come back and have a family and have the same house they grew up in to bring their families to visit? That's like 10-20 years away tho. 2000sq ft for two old people or downsize to a condo
~1000sq ft?

My parents promptly downsized to a condo once we were all out of the house. No one asked for our opinion LOL. They spend a lot of their time traveling and don’t want to be bothered with home maintenance. For holidays and major occasions we gather at my brother’s palatial home.

we are in a late 60s colonial 2200 sf for a family of 4. did some renovations during covid to make some spaces better for us, but didn't mess too much with the layout. I wish we had a proper entryway and a better laundry space. we could also use a slightly better kitchen space. It's decent space, but could use a few tweaks. I think I'd add maybe 300 extra feet, to add an in law suite and a small exercise room.

Ours is 2300 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, three bathrooms. I feel like that's great but I'd gladly take an extra room so we have both a guest room and an office.

Square footage is not as important as layout and how well the layout aligns with how your family uses the space. People have different tolerances for which activities can be co-located. For example, you could have a formal living room, tv room, and a play room as three separate spaces; maybe you have your one tv in your playroom and make do. Or maybe your living room, play room, and tv room are all in one room. Whatever combo is the right set up for your family can reflect whether you need 3k, 2k, or 1k square feet in order to be happy with your home.

Our home is 1500sq ft, with 5 bedrooms - 3 we sleep in and two offices. Our two smallest bedrooms are big enough to fit twin beds in them comfortably, but we use them as offices and they could be much smaller for those purposes.

Our more public spaces - our living room, dining room, and kitchen are small - If they were all 15% larger it would be perfect. I'd love to have a more distinct entryway with a coat closet. And I'd love to split our daughter's bedroom in half and add a third bathroom. She has the biggest room in the house, and it's kind've dead space. But really, if we could shift square footage away from our offices and into our public spaces, 1500 sq ft would be more than enough for our family of 3.

Is downsizing after kids go off to college ideal or stay put in chance they come back and have a family and have the same house they grew up in to bring their families to visit? That's like 10-20 years away tho. 2000sq ft for two old people or downsize to a condo
~1000sq ft?

Depends on layout. We have 2600 for 4 plus 2 dogs. It feels like it should be the right amount of space, but has a lot of wasted space in the formal LR and DR ok the first floor but not even a broom closet. Room dimensions are also important. Bigger is not always better and open floor plans are the absolute worst.

1500sf per person

My family of 4 moved from an 1800 square foot rowhouse in DC to a 4500 sq ft new construction house near Annapolis in 2019. The space is amazing for the most part, but if I were doing it all over again, I'd look for about 3,000 sq feet and a larger yard. But with our 3% mortgage we aren't moving until we're empty nesters.

In terms of space, we have a guest bedroom that is almost never used. DH has an office with ensuite full bathroom in the basement that is rarely used. Our kids have about 800 sq feet in the basement used almost exclusively for playing video games or having sleepovers with friends. We have a large den and 4 bedrooms upstairs, featuring the guest bedroom we don't use and a den that's really used only for folding laundry. So yeah, I'd kill now to have a larger yard with some privacy vs neighbor homes 20 ft away and could easily give up 1,000 square feet in exchange.

I think 2000sqft for a family of 4 is plenty.

Idk if anyone is familiar with the McLean area specifically Spring Vale Ave and Buchanan St - they built these great modern homes even though a lot a sq ft they’re compact to me and I don’t like tons of yard just but. I especially liked the one on Spring Vale - I think it just sold.

Anonymous wrote:1500-1800 is ideal for us.

Just divorced and still living in our family home, which is 4000 square feet and way too big for a single parent of 1 child. I want to sell but I have a 2.5% rate and is stable home base and close to work.

90 percent of divorced people with a child remarry. My friend got divorced with two kids and a 8,000 sf house. He kept house in Divorce, he remarried a women with three kids and two dogs.

1500-1800 is ideal for us.

Just divorced and still living in our family home, which is 4000 square feet and way too big for a single parent of 1 child. I want to sell but I have a 2.5% rate and is stable home base and close to work.