Downsizing took on a new meaning for Jennifer Mathews and Eric Hancock when they moved into their new home earlier this year.
The couple, who are engaged, bought the smallest model their builder offered: an 881-square-foot, two-story, two-bedroom unit.
"The first thing I said was all the guitars have to come up off the floor," Mathews said of her fiancé's hobby.
Their house is definitely the smallest on their cul-de-sac in a new Houston-area subdivision.
But the 30-year-olds represent a trend spreading rapidly across the country: Home buyers are opting for smaller spaces.
Nationally, space in a new home has been contracting since 2007, when the average size peaked at more than 2,500 square feet after increasing almost every year since 1982.
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The tendency to go small is largely related to a weak economy and a tight mortgage market.
In better economic times, more buyers were willing to take on hefty mortgages to buy the biggest homes they could afford.
"Now they're buying a reasonable home on reasonable home sites, with square footages a little smaller than they were," said Gene Swang of David Weekley Homes.
Other factors are at work, too.
An aging population is downsizing to smaller homes with less maintenance.
And as consumers have gotten more skittish about their finances, some have become less willing to pay the higher taxes, insurance and utilities that go along with bigger homes.
"One builder told me that the fascination of owning a 4,000-square-foot home in the suburbs isn't as popular," said David Jarvis of Metrostudy, a consulting and research firm. "Some of that is realizing what the hidden costs of owning that home are."
Mathews and Hancock came out of a rented three-bedroom condo nearly twice as large as their new home.
They didn't think they could afford a home until they were driving around last year and saw signs from their builder advertising homes from the $60,000s.
Los Angeles-based KB Home had launched its 881-square-foot model, targeting renters who weren't weighed down with another house to sell.
The company found that there was demand from consumers who wanted to buy homes but couldn't afford them, or who could afford only older houses without all the technological bells and whistles that now come standard on many new homes.
Mathews and Hancock paid about $78,000 for their house.
With taxes and insurance, their monthly mortgage is $637. And the highest electric bill they've had this year was $120.
But not everything is perfect.
The bedroom closets could be bigger. And the doors on the upstairs bathroom, which connect the two bedrooms, open inward, leaving the inside cramped.
But when they decide to eventually upgrade, they don't worry about selling their small home. Mathews has noticed prices on her model already have gone up.
"I really don't think we'll have that big of a problem."