Major homebuilders are prioritizing narrower houses with fewer doors, windows and cabinets. Median homes sizes are at a 13-year low.
The new American home is shrinking.
After years of prioritizing large homes, the nation’s biggest and most powerful home builders are finally building more smaller ones, driving a shift toward more affordable housing.
The boom in smaller construction has cut median new-home sizes by 4 percent in the past year, to 2,179 square feet, census data shows, the lowest reading since 2010. That’s helped bring down overall costs and contributed to a 6 percent dip in new-home prices in the same period.
Townhouses, in particular, are increasingly popular, accounting for 1 in 5 new homes under construction at the end of 2023, a record high, according to an analysis of census data by the National Association of Home Builders. To cut costs, companies are building smaller and taller, with fewer windows, cabinets and doors.
The problem is that more square metres doesn’t mean more useful functionality. I recall going into a model home and it had no less than three dining tables set up. You could entertain an inaugural ball, but the bedrooms were still chintzy 3m x 3m boxes, no dedicated office/library/etc, tiny pantry and laundry room.
I feel like an ideal home design would offer two more bedroom-size rooms than residents:
One as a dedicated office so you can remote work without having to appropriate the dining table, and one semi-finished for hobby room for activities that are space intensive, require special equipment, ventilation, etc. Think “woodworking or 3D printing shop”, “LAN party/gaming/home theatre room”, “model railway setup permanently built in room.”
OTOH, some of this could be compromised if similar facilities were provided in a community centre instead. I want to see the retirement neighbourhood built around a maker space and library instead of golf courses and pickleball courts.