Smaller houses would be very helpful for several generations of would-be homeowners. Most people do not want a McMansion as a "starter house" nor can they afford it, but that's typically what's available.
None that is going to make a lick of difference. Because of longevity, birth rates, and preferences for smaller households, America is short 30 million homes. You can't tweak your way out of this.
It would also help if the local authorities would not give people permits anymore to build houses close to forested areas. Instead more emphasis should be put on building taller houses/buildings which would accommodate more than one family.
They do have incentives, though. Maintenance costs are higher on larger houses and tend to increase with the age of a structure. You have to clean out all those extra bedrooms that are never used or end up with a bunch of cobwebs everywhere. That second story becomes much less practical when your knees start to go.
If you want more housing, the solution is just... build more housing.
By building smaller houses with better materials, we can reduce the energy requires to heat and cool them, slow acceleration of CO2 generation, and reduce maintenance costs.
If you can't afford to even build a tiny house with great materials, perhaps you can with the help of several family members or friends or we could work out deals where domiciles are time shared during the day; while you're at work, someone else can live there. We really only need a place to live for 1/3 of the day unless you're too young/too old/sick/diseased/injured.
If you don't want to think about the long-term future of humanity or just don't give a crap about your ancestors- fine, but I'm not with you on that.
We're past the tipping point now, so we have to come up with better solutions, or we're screwed:
This is good. Many of the "you used to be able to afford a house" narratives get tripped up by the fact that small houses are no longer built. The obvious solution is to build housing of all different sizes. Unfortunately I doubt many of these will be built since it seems like 99% of the US is opposed to it.
That would be a problem. There seems to be a lack of tiny plots to go with tiny houses. I get the feeling cities are about as happy with any concept of tiny plots as they are of trailer parks.
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