Are McMansions Making People Any Happier?

I've lived in large shared house with large land lot just 20 minutes away from Auckland. We made tons of parties, had many areas to lounge, herded sheep and cows, could lug boats, cars and all sort of other shit.

Big downside was lack of lack of pedestrian paths which my partner didn't like. For me having to move to a smaller house, further from metro really hit me hard. My partner can go on a walk now tho.

I used to live in a very large house. It didn’t make me any happier. If anything it was a pain to clean and maintain. Now I live in 200sqft and honestly I’ve never regretted this change. My friends find it comical.

Homes are in someway positional goods. Some people buy large expensive homes not because they want a large home, but because that’s all that’s available in expensive school districts.

I think that probably contributes quite a bit to growing houses. Even if someone doesn’t want the biggest house in the neighborhood, they almost definitely don’t want the smallest.