Is Bigger Better? Housing/Boat Size Trends

House size graph, courtesy Cascadia Green Building Council

In reading a friends YES magazine, I ran across the following article (Doug Pibel, "Think Small: A New Housing Model"July 24, 2012) asking if big houses are really the way to go. Looking at the house size graph we can see that by 2008 the square foot per person (961.5) is just shy of the home size in 1950 (983). The article asks if we really want to return to the 2008 sizes of homes, or if our nation and environment might better benefit from a return to 1950 sizes?

The same trend in happening in boats. I remember being fascinated at Lyn and Larry Pardey's graph at the back of Cruising in Seraffyn in which they point out that the average cruising boat for long term cruisers was 28 feet long. Post World War II there used to be lots of really good cruising designs in the 22 - 28 foot ranges, especially in the British Isles. Those days seem to have disappeared. If our marina is any indication, there are more 44 foot slips than there are any others. Only one dock's worth (both sides - or in this case, one side of two different docks) are 34 foot slips.

It is the end of the sailing season here. People are about getting their boats put away for the winter - although some will still get out from time to time. So now most of these boats sit, waiting ... Yet, I still think of the maintenance costs (not just in money, but in time, too) that larger boats/houses take. And I wonder ...

Are we really any better off?