Christian Real Estate Blog

Homes Get Bigger as U.S. Family Sizes Shrink

RISMedia - Residential Real Estate's Largest Independent News & Information Service: "Just like burgers and big-screen TVs, Americans are super-sizing their homes.

The average house built in the United States last year was a record 2,412 square feet. That's up 63 square feet from 2004 -- about the size of a walk-in closet.

Since the 1970s, the average single-family house built in America has grown by about 50 percent, according to a report released at the National Association of Home Builders' meeting this week in Orlando. During the same time, average family size has fallen from more than three people to about 2.5 residents per home.

Houses get bigger to contain all the features most buyers want. Almost 40 percent of new houses now have four or more bedrooms, compared with less than a quarter of such homes in 1973.

And 24 percent of houses built in 2005 had three or more bathrooms -- double the rate in the early 1970s.

More than half of just-built houses have two or more floors. In 1973, almost 70 percent of new homes were single-level."

posted by Justin Smith @ 1/17/2006 10:34:00 AM