The average size of the typical American home has been steadily increasing for a while now, and a byproduct of this is the shrinking number of homes smaller than 1,800 square feet that are being completed.
In 2015, there were 648,000 single-family homes completed, and just 21 percent of them, or 136,000, were smaller than 1,800 square feet. This number has remained relatively unchanged since 2011 when the number of “moderately-sized” homes hit a record low, calculatedriskblog.com reports.
Meanwhile, the number of homes that were over 3,000 square feet has grown by 76 percent from 2011’s level. In 2011 there was a total of 116,000 homes completed with a floor plan of over 3,000 square feet. In 2015, that number ballooned to 204,000 (with 72,000 of them being over 4,000 square feet).
The large number of houses being built that are over 3,000 square feet may be a contributing factor that is keeping single-family starts, overall, from creeping back up to more historic levels. Without a rebound in the number of smaller and less expensive homes being constructed, housing starts may continue to remain well below normal levels.
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