Thanksgiving caused the housing bubble……

Four years ago I had the same discussion with hundreds of twenty something first time home buyers with no kids. “We only need 1 bedroom, but we want four for our kids in the future and a spare in case my family comes to visit, and we need a formal living room and a big dining room so that everyone can come to our house for Thanksgiving”.  So we would design houses for young couples moving out of 900 sq’ apartments that were 3500 sq’ so one day of the year they could have the family over.  Of course the banks played a role in this because they were willing to loan them the money to massively over spend.  What was not accounted for was the added heating cost, the increased upkeep, and the triple taxes. It is my belief that the housing bubble can be blamed on that one holiday.  364 days of the year these same people only needed 1200 well planned sq’.

The good news is that pendulum has swung 180 degrees the other way.  The kids could not get financing from the banks if they had to, the government realized they could not cancel a national holiday so they have built in financing restrictions to make sure no one with less then 20 years of income stability can mortgage more then 25% of their earnings. Their parents on the other hand are coming through the door in droves looking to down size.

With solid credit, stable income and the good fortune of learning the real cost of home ownership beyond the mortgage payment, they want out, out of the family home designed for 5 and into small functional and cost effective homes with state of the art cost savings systems.  I am guessing you will be able to find some real deals on Mc-Mansions in the coming years.