Wall Street Journal says more households move into upper middle class

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Originally Posted by catherine

The realtor who sold us our house here also lives in my town and became a good friend. She had a beautiful 10-acre plot with a home that she updated tastefully. Gorgeous house, but she has that personality where everything has to be perfect. Her dream was to only stay there a few years and then move into Manhattan. Her dream was slightly deferred, but sure enough, last year she gave signals that she was readying her home to list and show it.

She listed it in the summer 2025, and it sold by the end of the day for 1.2M. Here's the listing: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...53318232_zpid/

She sold her cars and most of her furniture and moved into a 1BR place on the East Side. She is thrilled. I don't care how exciting NYC is, or how great it is not to have to mow 10 acres, I would NOT get a 1BR as a principal residence. And she paid probably close to a million for it. Different strokes. She is SO happy, constantly posting pictures of her and her dog at Centrl Park doggie meet-ups (it's amazing that the meetup is breed-specific, and a lot of people show up).

I could be tempted, though to live in a place maintenance-free. If I did, I could still garden as a volunteer Master Gardener.

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Your friend’s house is nice, but it’s too big for my taste, and it’s not intrinsically very interesting although it certainly is light and bright, and that view!!! That is certainly lovely.

I have a theory now that ideally, each person in the home as 600 square feet, so for the two of us, we would need 1200. We have lived in 800 and 1200 sq feet and I really felt okay in 1200, felt cramped in 800. So ideally, my son and dil and two children would have 2400 sq feet. They don't--I think they have about 1400, and it's a little tight. But this is just aspirational, of course.

I think my preferred amount of land would be 2 acres, as it is enough to do the things you want to do but now too much to care for. But we have too much woods now. I'd want two acres of clear land.

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Originally Posted by Tybee

I have a theory now that ideally, each person in the home as 600 square feet, so for the two of us, we would need 1200. We have lived in 800 and 1200 sq feet and I really felt okay in 1200, felt cramped in 800. So ideally, my son and dil and two children would have 2400 sq feet. They don't--I think they have about 1400, and it's a little tight. But this is just aspirational, of course.

I think my preferred amount of land would be 2 acres, as it is enough to do the things you want to do but now too much to care for. But we have too much woods now. I'd want two acres of clear land.

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As I scanhouse listings on Realtor.com, my eyes first look at the exterior of the place to see if it’s at all aesthetically acceptable, and the second point I look at is square footage. If I ever have to move, I do not want more than 1500 ft.². If it’s just me, I could go down quite a bit lower.

Our current house is 1800 ft.² some of it was designed for us and some of it was pre-determined by existing walls. Our public rooms are nice size, the bedrooms are small and the bathrooms are minuscule. I really like minuscule bathrooms, but I know a lot of people are going to hate them when we go to sell this place

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

As I scanhouse listings on Realtor.com, my eyes first look at the exterior of the place to see if it’s at all aesthetically acceptable, and the second point I look at is square footage. If I ever have to move, I do not want more than 1500 ft.². If it’s just me, I could go down quite a bit lower.

Our current house is 1800 ft.² some of it was designed for us and some of it was pre-determined by existing walls. Our public rooms are nice size, the bedrooms are small and the bathrooms are minuscule. I really like minuscule bathrooms, but I know a lot of people are going to hate them when we go to sell this place

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Yeah, man, I hate the comments on HGTV when prospective buyers walk into small bathrooms. My one bathroom is minuscule, also. We considered getting a walk-in shower, but we would have had to take out the clawfoot tub and there was no way that was going to happen. We made a walk-in shower outside, and so we have one five months of the year.

BTW, this link is the the one that my friend moved to in NYC. What do you think? Would you want to live there? https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...2_M45295-86240

I am enamored of small houses but they are very hard to find in more "desirable" areas for a price that makes sense. We have two of the dreaded "small" 5 x 8 bathrooms in this house so it may be hard to sell. I have just spent two weeks sharing my upstairs bathroom with DH while his was being reconstructed after a leak. It was an interesting experience trying to negotiate/share bathroom time for shaving, bathing, etc. in a very small space but back in the day even large families made do with one 5 x 8. It feels wonderful now that he has his own bathroom again.

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Originally Posted by Tybee

I have a theory now that ideally, each person in the home as 600 square feet, so for the two of us, we would need 1200. We have lived in 800 and 1200 sq feet and I really felt okay in 1200, felt cramped in 800. So ideally, my son and dil and two children would have 2400 sq feet. They don't--I think they have about 1400, and it's a little tight. But this is just aspirational, of course.

I think my preferred amount of land would be 2 acres, as it is enough to do the things you want to do but now too much to care for. But we have too much woods now. I'd want two acres of clear land.

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We have around 1400 sf, not including a screened in porch …. 2br, 2bath with 9 ft ceilings so it feels bigger. It is perfect for the two us. So, Tybee, I think your the theory is pretty close! If I were single, I think I’d want less. The lot is larger (1 1/2 lots) which is the only aspect I would change… too large. I’m in my minimalistic phase where less is best. No desire to have more to take care of.