New Data Shows People Are Buying Bigger Homes

May 23rd, 2007

Appetites for bigger homes are continuing to grow. Bigger mansions are sprouting up in Washington and Atlanta suburbia along with southern Connecticut and west Utah. Latest data shows that one in every five homes in the US had at least four bedrooms in 2005. This is way up from one in every six in 1990, and that too despite shrinking families and higher construction costs in the recent past. Homes with five bedrooms or more were the fastest growing segment during the same period, adding to the country’s existing excessive use of resources.

Gopal Ahluwalia, who is the VP of economic research at National Association of Home Builders said that it seemed bigger was better in this country, and that is seemed true for houses as well as automobiles. The state with the largest number of four bedroom houses was Utah, as reported by the census bureau last Tuesday. This is due to the fact that Utah has the highest people per household numbers than any other state.

Utah was closely followed by Maryland, Colorado, Virginia, Minnesota and Arkansas which had the lowest figures at 12.6%. Suburban homeowners looking to get better, more luxurious homes are fueling this growth for larger homes, according to Ahluwalia. He also added that they were buying for lifestyle. The national average size of a home has shrunk marginally since 1990 to around 2.6 people while homes have grown by over 400 square feet to 2,434 square feet on average.

Dale Mattison, a real estate broker said that smaller families are getting creative with extra rooms. Some bedrooms are being made into dens, while others are converted to media rooms or gaming rooms. American homes are almost two times the size of those in Europe. This list included England, France and Germany. Prices of homes in the US have also shot up by more than 40% with the average home costing $167,500.

The Washington metro area is a good example of this phenomenon. One third of the houses here including suburbs in Virginia and Maryland, have four bedrooms or more. Within Washington city, only 12% of the homes are that large. This is using up resources faster, with more land, more materials, and more energy than before. This does not seem to be affecting the demand for bigger homes in the country in any way.