One reason as to why there is such a great American interest in having a large home is because many American families are experiencing an economic recession. The number of jobs lost in America's largest cities is at an all time high. With this number of lost jobs, and the number of people who are looking for work, the cost of living in many cities is increasing at an alarming rate.
Many citizens of these large cities feel as if they are drowning in an ocean with no hope of recouping. With the cost of living increasing, many people who were making minimum wage or lower are now seeing their paychecks rise only to see that amount eaten away as their bills continue to grow. Not only are their bills growing, so are the mortgage payments. For some, this means they are now living from paycheck to paycheck. For others, it is still a struggle to pay the mortgage without losing any equity in the house.
If you are an American living in the city and have fallen behind on your house payment, you are not alone. Many cities across the United States have seen a surge in foreclosures. This is because the cost of living is simply too much to deal with for many people. However, there is a solution to this problem and it is why there is such an American obsession with large homes.
Because houses are priced so high in today's real estate market, many people feel like they have little to lose by putting one up on the market. After all, there are so many people competing for these homes that prices have gone down to where they are more affordable. The problem is, these homes are not necessarily located in the best neighborhoods. This is something Americans have gotten used to and now they seem to have an unhealthy fondness for these houses.
So many people who were able to afford these homes before are finding themselves in situations where they need to downsize. With a big home they have a ton of furniture and things that they find themselves needing to sell or store. In the Washington DC area, self storage has started to become more available for people needing to downsize. You can safely keep some large items in a storage unit until you are able to store them back in a sizable house.
Why is there an American obsession with large homes? There are a few different factors at work here. One of them is the fact that many people love the idea of owning a large home. This alone makes it easy for them to buy when they get ready to move. What is also true is that the cost of these houses is simply too much for most people to handle on their own. Many Americans live outside their means. Borrowing on credit to buy unnecessary items or focusing on material things over getting out of debt. The average American does not even have a sufficient amount of savings in their bank account. It is all about keeping up with the jones or having what other people have.
Many people are also drawn to the idea of living in a large home because of the historical value attached to them. Of course, we don't really know how much value there is in owning a large home in this day and age, but history certainly tells us that they can be very valuable if we are lucky enough to find one that holds its value well. It should be noted that the cost of large homes has declined over the last few years. This means that home buyers will have to be even more creative in their search for them.
Another question we may ask ourselves when trying to figure out why is there an American obsession with large homes? One factor that comes to mind is the fact that many people love the idea of being able to afford a home of their own. It seems that the country is built around the notion of giving the average family some measure of success. The problem is that many of those ideals are conflicting. Trying to live within them is often maddening. If you are able to afford a large home and it makes you happy, by all means you should have one. But we need to reassess what we can afford and figure out why Americans love oversized large homes so much.