Speculative real estate option, at least until 2007-ish, "real estate only goes up". A lot of approval processes etc are based on $/sqft so obviously if real e

Speculative real estate option, at least until 2007-ish, "real estate only goes up". A lot of approval processes etc are based on $/sqft so obviously if real estate always goes up 10%/yr then you'll make much more money off a 4000 sq ft house than a 1600 sq ft house. So always buy the largest most expensive house the subprime lender will approve to maximize future return. Which works really well as a strategy until prices stop going up, or drop. There is also a cultural trend aside from any financial issues where big and bland beats small. See SUVs and trucks, or rather stark looking big box CRE architecture. Factual small scale observations can be made off TV size/resolution vs sofa position. You need a very large living room indeed to handle the angular viewing dimensions of an 80 inch TV. You need a large living room, certainly over 20x20, to pull off 4 player kinect video games (or suffer lots of impact). Empty space is easy to build and cheap (free) to furnish.