by Jim Bessey

Created on: March 23, 2008   Last Updated: January 20, 2009

How big can houses become before we declare them too large? Should zoning boards and neighborhood preservation groups have the right to tell you your proposed house is too big? We all crave space, in one form or another. Space surrounded by walls and covered by a roof costs money; so the issue really revolves around money. How much is too much to spend on your residence ? The key question becomes: who gets to decide for you or for me?

Practical consideration:

Realtors know that house size should reflect the surrounding area. Good zoning and smart planning creates neighborhoods populated by houses that co-exist in harmony with each other. Knowledgeable buildersare careful to match new home size to the needs of the locale. The trend in square footage has been consistently upward. Is this a bad thing, realistically?

Mansions are a reality:

We've all seen the sprawling mansions in Beverly Hills, either from watching celebrity profiles or from seeing them burn to the ground in wildfire news stories. In the land of opportunity there are tens of thousands of homes so large they could be called palaces. There's money here in America, money often spent liberally on luxurious residences. Some may sneer at the blatant excesses displayed by wealthy home owners. Others - builders, maintenance contractors, home staffing agencies, furniture retailers, and many more - see the phenomenon of giant homes as a boon to their businesses.

A bit of background:

Prior to the Second World War, homes were clearly divided between the upper and lower classes. Working class folks lived in row houses or constricted city neighborhoods, while farm families filled their two-story houses with future farmhands. Early industrial tycoons like Vanderbilt and Morgan and Carnegie, with more money than they could spend in a lifetime, built dazzling estates that rivaled all but the most ostentatious European palaces. Times have changed as this country spread its prosperity more evenly among the "regular" people. The shift started when William Levitt built homes with room to expand and hasn't stopped growing since then.

When my family moved to New York in the early sixties we squeezed into a brand new ranch home of less then 800 square feet. As my siblings were born, we added space any way we could; we even considered ripping off the roof and building a second floor. Later, I remember driving around with my parents looking at raised ranches on the other side of our small town. "They're huge!" we all agreed.

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