I’m honored to be invited back to The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., on September 13th, this time to speak about How To Downsize Your Home With Style, a topic dear to my heart. And, no, I will not be discussing Candy Spellings move from her 56,500-square-foot French chateau-style home in Los Angeles with its wine-tasting room, bowling alley, silver room, china room and gift-wrapping room (darn, I could really use one of those!) to a modest duplex penthouse of only 16,500 square-feet with just 4,000 square-feet for the master bedroom. Poor woman. I guess the economy is affecting everyone these days.
Here are a few interesting statistics that confirm the growing trend in downsizing:
1) Families have changed dramatically. Between 1970 and 2000, the percentage of nuclear families – married couples with children – declined from 40% of households to 24%, according to the Census Bureau. And childless families are expected to increase.
2) In a February survey of potential home buyers by NAHB, 60% said they would rather have a smaller house with more amenities than the other way around.
3) A study released in May by the online house-pricing service Zillow.com found that less expensive houses appreciated more than costlier top-tier and presumably larger homes over the past five years – 10.1% versus 5.4%, respectively.
4) In the latest AIA Home Design Trends Survey, respondents were more than twice as likely to report a decline in home sizes than a rise in home sizes (33.5 percent vs. 15.5 percent).
5) “Clearly the baby boomer demographic is making powerful waves across all areas of North American culture,” says Gary Hockey, president of Canadian Operations, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, LLC. “Many empty nesters are no longer content to remain in the same home from marriage to retirement, and our brokers are seeing this impact in their local markets. There’s a clear spike from boomers downsizing or changing homes once children are out of the house and we expect this trend to grow over the next few years.”
Are you thinking about downsizing your home or have you already done so?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
We are living in the same house we bought 25 years ago of only 1500 sq ft. I have no desire for anything larger. Don’t get me wrong, at times I have wanted to go larger but it never made sense to us. Less space to collect ‘stuff’, less to clean I always say, easier to afford – a few reasons we stay small.
Debbie,
It sounds as though you were ahead of your time. Good for you!