According to a memoir by my grandfather, his family occupied a house in frontier Illinois of about 450 square feet on the first floor, not clear whether there was a second floor, but probably. In that house there were my great great grandmother, my great grandfather and grandmother, and 4 children.
One of my gripes with modern times is the evergrowing size of American houses--new houses are somewhere in the 2000+ range. Back when I was looking for a house in Reston, I was aware the developers had built some smaller houses, trying to lower the cost of entering the market. IIRC houses in my townhouse development ranged from $45K to 55K for 1,000 to 1250 sq. ft. The smaller separate houses were about 950 sq. ft. and cost roughly $45K.
Just checked prices on Zillow--now the small house is $450K or so, while in my development houses are running about $100-125K lower.
Apparently Americans put a premium on detached housing.
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