Incredible Shrinking Home Dilemma

As home prices & mortgage interest rates keep rising, WSJ notes how “America’s Homes Are Shrinking … Goodbye Bathtub & Living Room.” It’s the “popular” way of addressing the affordability equation … or, is it?

The author Maggie Eastland notes that since 2018, “the average unit size for new housing starts has decreased 10% nationally to 2,420 square feet.” She suggests that shrinking typical homestead is accelerating as more home buyers feel frozen out of the market & home builders look to likewise deal with spiraling construction costs. For instance, in 2022, starts for homes with less than 3 bedrooms increased 9.5%. In Seattle, the size of newly built homes is 18% smaller than 5 years ago, while new homes in Charlotte, NC & San Antonio shrank by 14%. Says Eastland: “Most builders & architects follow the same basic playbook … to produce more efficient living spaces” by “axing dining areas, bathtubs & separate living rooms. Secondary bedrooms & loft spaces are shrinking & sometimes disappearing. At the same time, they are increasing the size of muti-use rooms like kitchens & great rooms. Shared spaces like bunk rooms & jack-and-jill bathrooms, located between & shared by two bedrooms, are on the rise. In some cases, the kitchen island has become the only eating area in the home.

Dunno. There’s a reason those big over-sized mansions popped up seemingly everywhere in the last decade. Let’s not even think about the “incredible shrinking yard”, i.e., if you get any at all in today’s market. Maybe shrink the size of the family while you’re at it?

Davd Soul