I feel like real estate that one lives in will always be a good use of money. Maybe not always a good investment in the sense of a return on investment, but if it's one's literal home, is a gain or loss relevant? I owned during the real estate crash in 2007. It felt like it sucked, but in retrospect, I didn't sell and didn't need to sell, so now ten years later, it didn't matter. Do you feel like a half acre gives you a good deal of privacy, or is it more like homes stacked together, just with kind of big yard space? I'm looking at buying land to eventually build a private home on and am trying to get a scale for minimum lot size.
I like the half acre, we wanted more but it's a good compromise of land and location. We looked at a lot of places that had about the same size lot and it really came down to the landscaping and neighborhood. Ours feels pretty secluded because there's a lot of trees and shrubs that the neighborhood is invested in keeping. The few places that aren't covered are places we're going to put in screen plants to help promote that secluded feeling. We also have enough room for a garden, a clothes line, and a large shed. So that's nice.