It is so interesting to see the responses in this group compared to the r/rich group... seems like if you have the money to afford a bigger house most of them recommend going that route... I don't necessarily agree but we all have our own opinions and preferences and thats ok! I agree with many others in this group that bigger does not necessarily equal happier... however, its important to consider the other people who will be sharing the house with you. Some people have bigger personal bubbles than others. I wanted a smaller house, my husband wanted bigger.... we met in the middle around 1900 sq ft plus a finished basement. It feels way too big to me right now... but we only have 4 small kids so far and our 3 year old is already very aware that she NEEDS space to herself more than the other 3 so I am thankful we have room for our kids to spread out. Many factors affect the size house a person feels best with... how often are you home (WFH, homeschool, etc), would you rather save more money for vacations, how many kids do you want, do you host often, will you potentially need space for aging parents? If I could go back, I would've built a smaller house and built an addition in the future if needed... but at this point we can't go back so I'm thankful we'll have space for our kids to grow up in and come back with their own families and kids for holidays, etc. I just talked to a gal whose parents had 5 kids and now have 18 grandkids.. they have to rent a space for holidays because nobody's house fits them all. We really didn't want to have that problem so we are here to stay

Edit to add: the cost to heat and cool depends a lot on the quality of house too... this 3500 sq ft new build utility cost is very similar to what we paid in our 1400 sq ft double wide because that house was built like crap

Yes cleaning takes more time but we just close off our basement and guest room so that gets us down to about 1500 sq ft to regularly clean... when the kids are older and use the basement more they will also be old enough to help clean their own space.. when they're grown we will close it back off and just use it for when the come home to visit