More Money Than Sense

I was reading just a bit ago about the abundance of luxery homes in foreclosure and 'pre'-forclosure. What I don't understand is why we feel we need four thousand square foot homes for two or three people. I see them, even now in this supposed economic hard time, with homes being foreclosed on by the thousands, being built even in our small towns. When builders put up houses now, they don't even bother with those silly little homes like we grew up in as kids... you know, the normal houses. Nope, they go for the gold. The huge mansion style houses that sell for several hundred thousand at least depending on land values of the area you're living in. I asked my husband just the other day as we drove through the countryside on our way up to town for groceries... WHY? Who NEEDS a house that big? Typically it's a husband/wife and maybe a couple kids and a dog. What kind of 'Jones' do we have to keep up with now that we are buying homes that cost more than we could possibly make in eight years total? Why would anyone really want a house that big anyway? Right now I'm living in the house that we lived in with our two kids before they moved out. So at the moment it's just my husband and me in a 1500 foot ranch w/basement house. It has three bedrooms and one bath on the ranch level. In the basement there's a half bath no one ever used even when the kids were here, and a huge I guess family room, although there's one upstairs too, that no one ever used... and the laundry room. Okay we used that. LOL But the house is too big for just Bob and I now really. We barely use the main floor. No one ever goes in the family room anymore, and the basement may as well not exist... and this is a NORMAL sized house. I think Americans as a whole need to step back and really think about what they're throwing their money away on... money they don't even have apparently.