Interior vs. exterior space

We live in a small neighborhood of "urban homes" -- 1600 to 2400 sq. ft. homes on small (3500 to 4500 sq. ft.) lots.  We live close to downtown and have a large home by central Austin standards.  But to get this at Austin's prices, we had to give up a real yard.  That was a good trade for us.  We knew we wouldn't use a yard very much, and it would be a headache to keep up.  We care more about the interior space.   

Not everyone shares our preference.  That's fine with me.  But my neighbors obviously do.  And I've always thought there were probably lots of others who would make the same trade if they could.

Here's empirical evidence that our preference for interior over exterior space may not be that weird.  (h/t Matthew Kahn.)  These UCLA anthropologists followed 24 Los Angeles families around for four days to study how they use their house space.    Most of the them ignored their yards:   

Although the back yard is a purported center of family leisure, enjoyment, and privacy, the tracking data from Families 1 to 24 reveal limited uses of back-of-home spaces by family members, despite the fact that every sample included many weekend daylight hours and some afternoon and evening daylight hours, and the weather was generally mild and pleasant enough to be outside on most days. The most salient trend in the data is that 13 of the 24 families did not spend any leisure time (neither kids nor parents) in their back yards during the four days per family available for review. . . . In quite a few of these cases, no family member so much as stepped into the back yard. Sporadic activities in other cases were confined to non-leisure chores such as taking out trash or briefly feeding dogs or washing off chairs.

The yards seemed to function mainly as status symbols.  On the other hand, most of the families had converted their garages into storage rooms or extra living space.

The fact that most households in this sample––and millions visible throughout the U.S.—have converted their garages to spaces not focused on car storage signals a changing need of middle-class families. Families living in average-sized homes (1500–2000 sq ft), as most of these are in our sample, simply do not have enough living and storage space for all of their possessions, and they value garages more for these purposes than for housing cars.

It sounds like many of these families would be willing to trade exterior space for interior space, too.  Like I said, if you want a house with a big yard, that's fine with me.  I think Austin could use more neighborhoods like mine, though; there's probably plenty of demand, even among families with children.

Comments

[M1EK]

There's a lot of low-hanging fruit out there if we'd just have the guts to pick it.

1. Rowhouses. Small front yards, no side yards; big back yards. Get 99% of the benefits of suburban yards at 50% of the cost.

2. Just reduce front-yard setback, period. Our front-yard is two small patches of grass and a bunch of flowers; and that's just fine; I'd rather use the limited space we have in the back.

[Bruce]

While I agree that large yards (and houses)function primarily as status symbols, I think a lot of the problem comes to a lack of imagination, coupled with deep emotional triggers. People end up buying the type of house they grew up in. Or the type of house they see on TV. Or whatever they feel is sufficiently "house-like." That's how they end up with the big yard they don't use, the guestroom used for storage, the formal dining room that gets used twice a year, and the garage that's too full of stuff to fit the car.

I've seen people apply more functional analysis to a digital camera purchase than into the house they bought. You'd think that when making the biggest purchasing decision of your life, you'd think really hard about how you actually use the space.

[AC]

Let me add that I did not mean to imply that all or even most people use yards solely as status symbols.

[Tim]

I completely agree. We're going to try to go after one of the Mueller row houses. I've spent a lot of time talking to my wife about this. We have a nice deck in our back yard and I don't think she's ever ventured off of it. I have to maintain our huge yard and it's a massive time sink with no reward that I can see. But I had to spend a lot of time convincing her she didn't need a yard. She kept talking about our daughter using it when she's older, but we already take our daughter to the park 2-3 times a week, so why would that change? It's fascinating how ingrained yards are. I think part of it is that adults do rarely go into back yards, so some of our most magical childhood memories of imaginary worlds revolve around the back yard.

[Bruce]

Let me add that I did not mean to imply that all or even most people use yards solely as status symbols.

Understood. That wasn't really what I getting at either. My comments was meant to apply to those people that insist on having big yards, yet don't use them.

[Jeff Wood]

It seems to me that the reason people don't get it is because they don't see it. Where in Austin is a row house? When I lived on 38th and Guadalupe i would think that 38th from Guadalupe to Speedway would be the best place for rowhouses. There is an alley in the back for car ins and outs and the front yards are never used because there is so much auto traffic. Why the heck not create density that way? People have never seen it so they don't know any better.

[DSK]

Consider one more reason some people go for big yards - as a light and (especially) sound buffer.
I'm much more of a get-out-and-use-the-yard person, but even if I wasn't, a larger yard would be attractive to me from the buffer standpoint.

[PODO]

Great info, thanks a lot!!! I wish I will have such a writing skills.