For decades, the average size of new homes has been rising exponentially. However, the recession and housing crisis caused a sharp decline in average new housing sizes.
For decades, the average size of new homes has been rising exponentially. However, the recession and housing crisis caused a sharp decline in average new housing sizes.
The decline in the average square footage of new homes in recent years is the sharpest since the U.S. Census Bureau started tracking such data in the mid-1970s. New homes shrank more than 5 percent since the 2007 peak, when the average nationwide was 2,521 square feet.
In the Portland area, the average peaked in the winter of 2007 at 2,672 square feet. It had fallen to about 2,286 square feet by the second quarter of this year, according to numbers compiled by the Bothell, Wash.,-based New Home Trends Inc.
The smaller homes reflect homebuyers’ skittishness over the economy, as well as the bigger down payments typically required to get a mortgage. Conventional wisdom would suggest smaller homes are here to stay until the economy recovers more fully.
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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