Where Did The Grass Go?

• October 18th 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

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While micro-units may have been in vogue a year or two ago, a new study shows that homes built nationwide are taking up more of the lots that they are built on.

The Trulia report released today finds that homes constructed since 2015 occupy a quarter of the lot they sit on, 10 percent more land than homes built in 1975.

In the DC area, homes built since 2015 occupy closer to 22 percent of their lot. Lot usage in the region actually fell starting in the early 20th century before bottoming out in 1975, when newly-constructed houses took up just 11 percent of a total lot. In 2011, lot usage peaked when newly-built homes were covering 24.6 percent of the total lot.

For DC’s overall housing stock, single-family homes take up about 19 percent of lot size, with a median house size of 1,554 square feet and median lot size of 10,000 square feet.

The increased coverage on lots is not entirely the result of larger homes being built, but also due to the fact that homes are being constructed on smaller lots. While both lot and house sizes fell in the early 20th century, the mid-century suburbanization of the country led to bigger homes being built on even bigger lots by the 1970s, a trend that has since reversed.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/where_did_the_grass_go/13145.