Home | Newsletter | Advertise
loading...

Bye Big Homes: Report Predicts the End of McMansions

  • May 15, 2012

by Shilpi Paul

The Demand Institute, an organization that analyzes changing trends in consumer demand, has released a report that harkens the end of large, sprawling single-family homes miles from the nearest walkable town center.

Bye Big Homes: Report Predicts the End of McMansions: Figure 1
Home size trends. Courtesy of the Demand Institute.

A few conclusions from the report:

Consumers will reduce their expectations and houses will be smaller, neighborhoods will be increasingly segregated economically, resulting in polarization, and demand will be high in areas well served with amenities that are within walking distance and that have a sense of community. Sprawling, featureless suburbs will be less attractive.

The average home size has been steadily shrinking for the past few years and the Demand Institute expects that trend to continue. In addition to changing values, downsizing empty-nesters and urbanite Generation Y-ers, the report links the change to the growing middle class. While a small percentage of Americans are getting wealthier, most find themselves with less money and thus more interested in smaller homes.

The report concluded that rental demand from young people and immigrants will lead the national housing recovery. Developers and investors will buy up properties with the intention of renting them out to these groups who have limited savings, and developers of new rental units will be an important source of home building growth. We’re seeing that in DC (the high level of construction activity is being led by multi-family buildings), but it can also be seen in the rest of the country; the report mentions that developers started 178,200 new multifamily units in the U.S. in 2011—a 54 percent increase over 2010.

Similar Posts:

See other articles related to: smaller homes, mcmansions, demand institute

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/housing_report_predicts_the_end_of_mcmansions/5545

DC Real Estate Guides

Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market

We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Visit guides.urbanturf.com or start browsing below!

First-Timer Primers

Intro guides for first-time home buyers

Red Flags Revealed During a Home Inspection Top 5 Tax Breaks For Homeowners Tax Relief for DC Homeowners
Condo Fee Tutorial What is a Rent Back? 10 Ways To Tell If a Home Renovation is Well Done
Obtaining a Basic Business License For Your Rental What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage? The Splitting the Rent Formula
How Much Cash Do You Need to Buy a House? Is This Condo Building Financially Healthy? Interest Rates and Mortgage Points
The Scoop on Mortgage Insurance

Unique Spaces

Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro

The Most Intriguing Loft in DC The R Street Firehouse DC’s One-Room House
Dupont Circle’s Old Frat House To Become Alley Home Best Transition From a Garage To a Home The Roundhouse
Tilden Gardens Restaurant-Turned-Home Hits Market Next Week Logan Circle’s Most Intriguing Garage Frank Lloyd Wright Goes Green in Kensington
Sears Bungalow Gets a Modern Makeover Old Town General Store Becomes Three-Level Home Making the Most of a Skinny House
A Studio 27 Renovation on Capitol Hill Once a Carriage House, Now a Home The Bank that Became a Home
From Pie to Hooch to Heroin to Home The Live-Aboards of Gangplank Marina A Treehouse with Rock Creek Park As A Backyard
Modern Tranquility in Sperryville Saddle Up For Stable Living Throwing a Curve at 550 Square Feet
A Modern Hilltop Retreat Tilden Street Restaurant Becomes Spacious Home Focus on Design: A Vastu Unit at 22 West
The DC Area’s First Net Zero Home A Yankee Goes Green DC’s First Carbon Neutral Home
Eco-Friendly Alley House Off H Street The Gym, The Stables and The Firehouse