by myself. I get that it's nice to have space. But different people value different things. We just sold our house with a big yard. It took waaaay too much time away from my family and work. Older homes are money pits. We sank 10s of thousands into that house for way too little return.
Now we're building. It's on a half acre, but if I couldn't afford it, I would rather build on a very small yard and have a nicer new home that doesn't need so much maintenance and work. Kids won't be young forever.