“As I was reading through this thread, what I noticed was all the high-level creativity and innovation that went on with kids during the 60s and 70s. This is what kids did then, played creatively - and yes, some of it was very dangerous, and yes, it is what took us to the moon and back.”
Our house was built in the 1970’s and is about 1800 sq. feet. Lots of homes near us were built in the 60’s and are smaller ramblers - say 1200 square feet.
Those smaller homes are now being bulldozed and in their place are 5,000 sq. foot homes or larger. Many of the new homes have 5 bedrooms and 7 baths! (I have no idea why every child needs their own master bath, but...)
And the house covers most of the lot. I asked a builder friend about them. “Well, with land being the most expensive part of the price, folks want a bigger house for that price. And they don’t need a yard because nobody uses them anyway. The kids are either on their devices, at school, or some organized activity.”
We built a huge fort in the corner of my child-hood back yard and added onto it over the years. Mostly done with scrap lumber. (Okay - it seemed like scrap to us, but looking back, some of it probably wasn’t. Heck - even at the time we didn’t think it was scrap. “Yeah - but it’s got dirt and concrete all over it - and just laying here in the dirt. It’s not over in that pile of new stuff.”
Exact same thing is happening in my neighborhood - homes were “throw up” after WW II - quickly. And weren’t that big - (ours is 1600, but has an addition added on b/f we bought it).
These small starter home go for $1 million and up - and yes, it’s the land that’s valuable, not the home itself. A lot of them have old wiring, old plumbing and were poorly designed. I’ve had to have a lot of upgrades ($$) done since we bought the house.
When they are sold, inevitably they are razed and a much much larger home goes up in its place. Many are adding ADUs in the back as well - to either rent out or for elderly relatives.
Some are flipped quickly, others are kept as family homes. What we worry about are the now state-controlled zoning laws that mandate any/all property formerly zoned as a single-home property can now hold up to four units - more if it’s near a transit zone (which is all of the state of California) - then it can contain up to eight units. It will happen.