Pros and Cons
Larger homes are more costly in terms of building, taxes, heating, maintenance and repair. In addition to costing less, small houses may encourage a less cluttered and complicated life and reduced ecological impact for their residents. The typical size of a small home seldom exceeds 500 square feet (46 m2).
Small houses may emphasize design over size, utilize dual purpose features and multi-functional furniture, and incorporate technological advances of space saving equipment and appliances. Vertical space optimization is also a common feature of small houses and apartments.
As small houses may be attractive as second homes, their increased utilization may lead to development of more land. People interested in building a small home can encounter institutional “discrimination” when building codes require minimum size well above the size of a small home. Also, neighbors may be hostile because they are afraid of a threat to their property values. However, this concern may be baseless as there is evidence that they actually increase property values through increases in density. There has also been opposition based on this fact, due to concerns about increased taxes.
Read more about this topic: Small House Movement
Famous quotes related to pros and cons:
“Quite generally, the familiar, just because it is familiar, is not cognitively understood. The commonest way in which we deceive either ourselves or others about understanding is by assuming something as familiar, and accepting it on that account; with all its pros and cons, such knowing never gets anywhere, and it knows not why.... The analysis of an idea, as it used to be carried out, was, in fact, nothing else than ridding it of the form in which it had become familiar.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)