Home | Newsletter | Advertise
loading...

New Single-Family Homes May Be Shrinking

  • February 26th 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

Square footage of new single-family construction over time. Click to enlarge.

While the size of a new home began trending upward after the national post-recession recovery, new statistics show that the median square footage for the average new single-family home dropped at the end of last year.

Census construction data, along with data from the National Association of Home Builders, show that the median size of a new single-family house fell to 2,252 square feet in the fourth quarter of 2019, dropping by about 60 square feet year-over-year.

While median size dropped, the average size of a home is still on the rise. The average size of a new home increased to 2,511 square feet, showing that there is still an appetite for spacious new construction. For additional context, average square footage has increased year-over-year since the market bottomed out in 2009, rising by about six percent. 

An analysis of the data explains that homebuilders are responding to the demand created by low interest rates and the need for entry-level housing on the for-sale market. Home size tends to shrink before and during a recession and bounce back after the market recovers.

See other articles related to: homebuilding, new construction, new homes, recession, square footage

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/new-single-family-home-size-is-shrinking/16510.

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. 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