What is considered a "big" home?

[RangerPooh]

Where we were living the homes that we rented were in the 1,500-1,700 sqft range. Our new home is around 2,500 sqft. I'm enjoying the space! IMO anything over 2,500 sqft is big.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Depends on the number of people living in it.

 

[Christine]

Depends on the number of people living in it.

Do you think?

I mean if 6 people live in a 4,000 square foot home, I still think it's a big/large home. Now, they may take up every inch of space and feel crowded, but that doesn't make it a small home.

 

[mnrose]

Eh. I think an "average" home is between 1800-2400 square feet. Much bigger than that, you've got a "big" home by most standards in the US. Our homes are huge compared to most other countries.

 

[Nennie]

I'm in NJ, and there are a lot of "big houses" that have been built in new developments in the last 10 years. I would say that 4000 is considered big, and 5000+ is considered really big. Most 4000+ homes also have 3 car garages, which makes them look even bigger.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I'm a city dweller, though not in the dense part of the urban core; I live in an 1100 sq. ft. single-family home with a front and back yard, with a separate 2-car garage on the alley. In my world, anything over 2000 sq. feet is big. Anything over 3500 may as well be a hotel, unless you have a really large family.

Same here - our urban/suburban neighborhood about 15-20 miles from one of the biggest cities in the US boasts mid-century homes with an original footprint of between the 1000-1500 sq foot range. Ours is about 1350-1400, including a very small addition of a 2nd floor bathroom. I'd say that at least 60% of the homes in my neighborhood have had some sort of addition added over the past 70 years, so we now have a wide range of styles from the original 1000 sq feet houses to sprawling 3,000-4,000 3/4 of a million dollar jobs.

For the 5 of us, our 4 bedroom, 2 bath with a semi-finished basement would be perfect if not for the horrible layout. I would actually prefer to have lost a bedroom to gain more living space on the main floor. The kitchen is smaller than most walk in closets, and there is no dedicated dining area anywhere so our dining table that seats 6 is pushed into the corner of our 16x16 living room. I had visions when we bought the house for making one of the two downstairs bedrooms the dining room (It's not far from the kitchen), but DH vetoed that idea and opted instead to finish the basement off. ( so now one side is a large finished family room with carpeting, the other is about 1/2 done with a cement floor covered by area rugs and white paint on the walls but very clean-looking, at least for a basement). I love the family room, but it is so awkward with guests - "come down a flight of stairs and through the non-finished part of the basement so we can entertain you in our awesome family room!"

There is really nowhere upstairs to entertain unless people crowd around the dining table, and forget about having more than one person in the kitchen at once. That is becoming a HUGE problem now that my kids are older - I want to teach them how to cook, but there is no room! It didn't matter when they were little and I didn't WANT them in the kitchen, but now I would enjoy their company!

Anyway, I think that anything between 1300-2000 is average, anything over 2000 is on the larger side. I also agree with whomever said it is all perception. Case in point -

My sister's family moved from a 1500 sq foot 3 bed, 1 1/2 bath, upper floor laundry, big eat in kitchen, family room and and full basement because they were having a 2nd baby and wanted more space. My sister has fairly unique and rare health problems and will not be having more than 2 kids (even 2 was slightly frowned upon by her Neurologist). They moved about a mile away into a sprawling 3800 sq foot house where you guessed it....their walk in closet is about 2 times bigger than my kitchen LOL

So, they have a living room, dining room, huge kitchen with island and a seperate eating area that holds a 6 person table, a gigantic family room, a powder room, laundry room, and an office on the main floor. The 2nd story has 4 bedrooms, a loft, a full bathroom for the kids, and a master suite that has a double door entry into a master that is bigger than my whole main floor!

Although admitting that they only use about 1/3 of the house as it is, they want to turn their main floor office into another TV room so the kids can go in there to watch TV when the parents are watching movies in the family room.

They couldn't host Christmas this year because their basement wasn't finished yet. Instead, everyone (30 people) came out to my house 5 hours away and we all crowded into my 1400 sq foot house and had a blast being close and cozy

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Do you think?

I mean if 6 people live in a 4,000 square foot home, I still think it's a big/large home. Now, they may take up every inch of space and feel crowded, but that doesn't make it a small home.

2000 sq feet would seem large to me for one person. 3,000 sq feet for a family of 6 would seem about right. I guess it depends on how you are judging "big".

 

[CdnCarrie]

I have noticed from my vast experience of watching House Hunters that house size can depend on whether you live in an area where fully finishing basements are common/possible.
In areas without basements the main square footage seems to be a lot larger.

The average house size here is 1400-1800. Majority of homes have fully developed basements. Basements are never included in the square footage.

 

[bcwife76]

Ours is 2600sqft including basement (which definitely counts in our neighbourhood as it's a full, self-contained suite and many houses in this area have them). Here I'd consider anything over 3200sqft big, but our lots are tiny too

 

[NHdisneylover]

When we lived in the US and had 2000 sq feet in our last home there, I felt that was "big" (2 adults, 2 kids)

Our rental townhouse here n Germany is abut 1500 sq ft, which is bigger than I expected to find here ,and bigger than a lot of people have---so, yes, 2000 is big by European standards where a lot more people are in a lot less space.

We are moving into a 2 bedroom condo son--we bought it now that it is just DH and I and one teen living at home. It is about 925 sq ft (though we do have another 800 sq feet in terrace space). That'S pretty typical for many here (though certainly others have a lot of space, it varies)

 

[EMom]

When we adopted from Russia, we had to submit photos of every room in our house, including closets. They specifically wanted to see closets. We obliged. Later we asked a Russian (involved in our adoption) about it and they admitted that many were fascinated by American houses, including the closets. They loved to look at the pictures.

Our houses have gotten bigger over time. They've gone from 1650 to 1800, 2300, 2800, 3900. The next house will be an empty nest house and we plan on 2200-2500. Enough room for potential grandchildren to come home for the holidays and not be crowded and all one floor. All I care about is a big kitchen, big master bath, big master closet, and a separate garage from my husband's. I finally got that separate garage and it's heaven. No junk in it...nothing except my car.

I grew up in a house of about 1200 square feet. A lot of my family still live in houses that size. They thought I lost my mind when I built the 2300 SF house and only one has seen the latest/biggest one. Their very practical reaction upon seeing it would be, "How do you keep a house this big clean by yourself?" No, I don't have a housekeeper. We didn't necessarily want a house this big. I just wanted a HUGE kitchen and for some reason, builders only put huge kitchens in very large houses. At least 3500 SF. You can't get the kitchen I want in a 2500 SF house unless you design it yourself. That is probably what we will do when we build the last house.

 

[Sabeking]

Our home is 3300 including a finished third floor. It was built in the 80's. It seems today in our area the homes are just getting bigger with really open floor plans. I am amazed at the new neighborhoods going up here that have anywhere from 4000-10,000. Here is the crazy part as well, a custom built 5000 sq foot home would go for about 500-650 hundred thousand dollars. Placed on about half an acre. When my aunt an uncle come from California they love to look at houses on the market and do a price comparison.

 

[Liberty Belle]

To me, big is anything over 3,000 sq ft, but after watching House Hunters International a few times, I can see that others would find 2,000 to be very big.

My house is 2400 sq ft and it's adequate for us, but I wish it were a little bit bigger. Seems like 3,000 or so would be ideal.

 

[puffkin]

In this area, 2000-2500 SF in newer developments is average. Large homes are in the nicer developments in the 3000-4000 range. Anything larger than that is huge. Most listings do not count finished basements in the listing.

I have an average 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath development home. We have 2000 SF of upstairs space and another 800 SF in our finished basement. Without the basement, our house is pretty cramped for 2 adults and 2 kids. With the basement its pretty good. We have a very functional layout. I'd love a few rooms to be a little bigger, but overall we do just fine in our very average sized home (for the area).

 

[MomofKatie]

Our house has 1850sqft- 2 stories, 3 beds /2.5 baths and a bonus room over the garage. It is on a slab, so no basement, but there is a 2 car garage (used for 2 cars and workbench, lawnmower storage, etc). We considered it to be the perfect size for our family of 3- it is a bit large, actually, now that DD has moved out for school.

I would consider anything larger than 3000sqft to be a big house. Most 'average' homes here are anywhere from 1500-2800sqft or so, depending on the area, lot size, and price.

 

[PigletsPal2]

As a pp mentioned, it all depends on what you're used to. Former son-in-law lived in council housing (subsidized housing administered by the local governing council) in Hackney, just outside of London. If I remember correctly, DD#1 said it had 1 BR, a split bathroom (toilet in one room, shower stall and sink in an adjoining room), combo LR/DR, and galley kitchen. I have no idea of the square footage, but when he saw our 1750 sf house for the first time, his reaction was "Cor blimey! It's a mansion!" Not by a long shot, but I guess it was to him.

The houses in our current neighborhood are pretty cookie-cutter; they were built as vacation rentals in the early '90s and there are three different sizes - 2 BR/2 BA no family room, 3 BR/2 BA no family room, and 3 BR/2 BA with a family room, which is what we have. I wonder what former son-in-law would say about this 1800 sf house; the lot is about 1/3 larger and we have a screened heated pool. It's very ordinary and typical for this area.

Queen Colleen

 

[QueenIsabella]

Our house is big. We have 4600 sq. ft. officially, but that doesn't include our 640 sq. ft. sunroom (not heated or cooled), the oversized 2-car garage, or the "pool storage area". OTOH, we don't have a basement. But, I'd be the first to tell you, it's a lot of space. The rooms are huge, so I have an eat-in kitchen, the dining room is a craft room, and the kids have a huge playroom. It's the largest house in the neighborhood, and we're told it was the subdivision builder's own home.

We moved south from New England. Our house there was 2000 sq. ft. with a full (but unfinished) basement. The southern house cost less than 10% more than the northern house.

We're not rich, we just have a bunch of kids. The whole house is hardwood floors, except the bedrooms, and I swear, when I'm done sweeping, I'm ready for a nap.

 

[disney world dreamer]

have you watched house hunters international?
other countries have very small houses.
my house is 2,800sqft (4bed 3bath) and i'd say its fairly big in comparison to other people's houses i've been in but for this neighborhood its average.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

We have 2100 square feet (that's total living space; we don't have a basement) for our family of 4. That is really small around here. Many of our neighbors are twice that or more.

 

[goofy4prez]

Our home is 2,885 square feet for three people. When we built the home we built it with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, but with a very open great room. The house looks much bigger than it is. But with that said I would call it fairly large for our area. A couple of years later we refinished the entire basement with a nice office area, a theater room, a work work out area and another 1/2 bathroom. I don't count this into the square footage of our home.