I’m house-shopping myself so I’ve been having to consider these, too.

Advantages:
Two story houses can be bigger for the same amount of land. They might even have more yard on the same size lot because they take up less “acreage” as some of the square footage is UP. Stairs are a nice feature, aesthetically pleasing especially if they have a nice wooden rail.

It’s also a nice separator from living room/kitchen/dining room from bedrooms. Often times there is more storage space, including under the stairs, but that is largely dependant on design.

Disadvantages

Stairs are hard on the aging body. Are you getting older, or is someone who will be at the house a lot getting older or have bad knees, bad hips, or something wrong with the legs? Stairs are rough on such people.

Stairs are also a pain to clean- they need to be vaccuumed like anything else but often the vaccuum only reaches halfway up at best, then you need to haul that sucker UP the stairs and clean the other half. Not fun. It’s a real hassle trying to move furniture up into the bedrooms, too. Especially if it’s heavy furniture like a big heavy armoire, dressor, or desk!

Stairs are a safety hazard if you have or will have small children. Usually people get by without problem using installed baby gates, but accidents can happen and injury involving stairs can be serious. I knew of a child who suffered permanent brain damage due to a fall down the stairs, and heard of another that broke his neck and never could walk again. Very sad- so safety is not something to be taken lightly.

As far as property value goes- the value of the house declines if you have elderly looking to buy but may increase if you have younger folks looking at it.

Ultimately, what do you like better. There’s something fun about having a two-story house, kids usually love it, and they look nice. So balance the pros and cons of stairs or no stairs to decide if they’ll be right in YOUR life.

Good luck and hope this helped.

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