Less money, less house: How market forces are reshaping the American home - The Boston Globe
www.bostonglobe.com
The nation's biggest and most powerful home builders are finally building more smaller ones, driving a shift toward more affordable housing.

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.

  • Binthinkin@kbin.social
    8·
    8 months ago

    I mean they should have been building multi family homes rather than suburbs for 40 years. They have been stupid and keep being that, the rich are worse.

    It was obvious back in the 80’s how it should have went but there are too many forces butting heads within the industry and the government (which leads our way of life).

    The “it’s not broke don’t fix it” attitude has had terrible repercussions. Not updating our way of life over the past 40 years has led to a lot of destruction. Not only have these dumb as shit huge houses cost us environmentally on the front end, they also fill up landfills on the back end when a disaster strikes AND it’s happening more often thanks to Exxon and Co.

    On one house build we had to fight a wildfire that took one home, and 22 acres also burned. It was nuts. I have seen a lot of crazy shit out there.

    But the public (homeowners) have rarely said “let me get this small house.” It’s more like which gated community can I afford? That’s who fills up the landfills the most. Because these houses aren’t even good. A large multi family has a higher chance to survive a disaster simply due to the way codes are written, region dependent ofc.

    Even in the rural areas. They want as big as possible. I had ONE person build a small home intentionally. But I think that was due to financial constraints tbh.

    Look, people and their habits. They are used to big homes and will keep doing so. The people who can afford to build will build at a lower cost and right now that means lower sf.

    If the market rebounds like after 2008 (i doubt it unless Biden gets back in) then people will go big again regardless of the climate. Just like they did with Hummers and SUVs. They took a hit and now look at those things. Fucking huge for no goddamn reason.