I think it depends on how old the house is and what you are comparing it to (condo or detached house). We moved to a 10 year old farm house and the house mainte

I think it depends on how old the house is and what you are comparing it to (condo or detached house). We moved to a 10 year old farm house and the house maintenance has been easier than our older suburban home. Most maintenance time is spent outside because we have a couple of acres, an orchard and we enjoy gardening. But there was nothing stopping us from getting a house without acreage in the same area. One thing that has improved, maintenance-wise, is snow removal. In our suburban home I used to spend 40-60 minutes removing snow from the driveway. Now we have a bigger driveway, but it's very affordable to get a professional snow removal guy to come with a plower and take care of it in 5 minutes. I started to enjoy winters much more after moving. Plus the white winter scenery here is much better than the muddy winter in the suburbs.