Want a Bigger Backyard? Buy a 2-Story Home!

If you’re searching for South Florida homes for sale and one of your criteria is that you want a big backyard, consider focusing on two-story homes as they generally have a smaller footprint on the property and often have more air-conditioned living space for about the same amount as a single-story home.  This photo of two Broward County homes side-by-side provides an example of what I mean.  The lot size of each of these properties is 5,665 square feet.  On the left is a 2-story home with approximately 2,400 square feet of air-conditioned space while the one on the right is a 1-story home with approximately 1,950 square feet of a/c space. 

Now look at the footprint of the house on each lot.  While they both have about the same size front yard, the backyard of the 2-story home is large enough to accommodate a pool and still have some yard space left.  In subdivisions, the front setbacks are typically the same so the real difference can be found in back of the house. Surprisingly, there usually isn’t a big gap between the sale price of each home, assuming they are in the same neighborhood, have similar lot sizes and are the same type of lot (ex: waterfront) with similar outdoor amenities (ex: pool).  So the question to ask yourself is, which is more important to you… no stairs or more useable land/outdoor space?