‘What do you need a big yard for?’: Homeowners trade yards for extra rooms to avoid moving
Jan 31, 2026, 5:00 AM
Many homeowners have begun searching for savvy alternatives to keep them in their current homes while maintaining their low interest rates.
One common technique homeowners use is to forgo parts of their property to increase their home’s square footage, such as sacrificing their front or backyards.
Jake Skorheim, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, detailed why purchasing or maintaining a home with a yard may be overrated, and why steep interest rates have pushed homeowners to ditch their yards altogether and renovate on top of it.
“Homeowners are sacrificing their yards. If you have a yard, homeowners are saying, ‘We don’t want to move because we’d get stuck,'” Jake said. “A lot of people bought homes during that magical time when interest rates were historically low. Now they’re saying I would rather add an extra room or two rooms, and a second floor. Not a bad idea, right? What do you need a big yard for? It’s just effort and work, you’d rather have more square footage, which is what people are doing.”
“Nobody is selling big yards anymore. I told you about my neighborhood. There was a time when people had yards the size of football fields,” co-host Spike O’Neill responded. “Nobody has a yard anymore, and if you do, you’re building on top because you can’t move. They’re building bedrooms, dens, and accessory units.”
Spike explained how he feels stuck with his home. Despite his and his wife’s wishes to downsize, they have elected to stick with a low interest rate rather than make a lateral move.
“The missus and I have had an ongoing discussion that our house is too big, we’d like to downsize, but we’re stuck,” Spike said. “Why would I give up the attractive mortgage rate I’m currently sitting in ot take on a new loan at twice the rate and much higher payment for much less property. It’s not a lateral move anymore for us, given our interest rate.”
“Stuck is a tricky word. You don’t want to do it, you’re not stuck,” Jake responded. “You don’t want to move, but is that stuck? Stuck, to me, is like you can’t get out. You could get out, though.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
