| My friend Jaye and her husband raised their two children in a 560-square-foot apartment in New York. Loneliness was rarely an option. "We just embraced it," she said. So did their friends. Many nights, the family's different social circles coalesced in the tiny apartment's living room. Jaye, who still lives there, recalls those years as among the best of her life. And she might have been onto something. The American Dream is virtually synonymous with a larger, suburban house. But although the size of the average American home has nearly doubled, the people living in them aren't any happier. Space is only one of many variables in the equation of a happy life, said Mariano Rojas, an economist at the National Technological Institute of Mexico. It's not the most important. The average American home includes nearly 1,000 square feet per person, up from about 600 square feet in 1970. That's because even as the typical home has grown to 2,400 square feet, the number of people living in them has fallen to a record low of 2.5, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But after meeting our basic need for shelter, square footage has, at best, a tenuous relationship with life satisfaction. "What matters is not really the size of the house but what happens inside that house with relationships," Rojas said. "If you move to a larger house, and you sacrifice that, then you have a problem." In my column this week, I write about how we may have the American Dream backward. What has been the right size of home for you? Write me at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. | 
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