Real Estate Trend Is for Bigger Homes on Smaller Lots

Of 2,000 adults surveyed by Trulia, 43 percent would prefer to live in a bigger home. While all age groups preferred larger dwellings, more Millennials and Gen Xers favored bigger homes than baby boomers. “Would-be downsizers outnumber upsizers only among households living in the largest homes,” says Ralph McLaughlin, housing economist at Trulia. The average home was 2,467 square feet in 2014, or 13 percent larger than the average 2,174 square feet in 2005, prior to the popping of the housing bubble, according to Metrostudy’s Northeast regional director, Quita Syhapanya. The average size rose 11 percent from 2010, when the nation was deep in the real estate recession, and grew despite a decrease in the average family size. Syhapanya says most builders target the luxury-home market, noting that “the numbers are skewed to be higher because of the market segment these builders are going after.” Builders are putting up large homes in prime locations and fetching the most money per square foot, maximizing and leveraging the value of the land, which is in short supply. | Read More