Are 5,000-Square-Foot Homes Too Big?
The share of new homes that are 5,000 square feet or more is dropping. It’s now at its lowest point since 2012, during the Great Recession.
The percentage has dropped from 3.9 percent in 2015 to 3.1 percent in 2016. In absolute terms, that’s 28,000 units reduced to 24,000, respectively, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction.
In 2015, the share of 5,000-plus–square-foot homes skyrocketed to its highest number since 2007. But from 2009 to 2012, during the housing crisis, the number of large homes remained less than 3 percent of all new single-family construction.
What’s inside these supersized homes? More than half of the homes have five bedrooms or more; 70 percent have four bathrooms or more. Seventy-four percent of 5,000-plus square-foot homes tend to have a finished basement; 65 percent have a three or more car garage; and 58 percent have a patio or porch.
The National Association of Home Builders speculates that fewer larger homes are being built by builders in favor of an expansion into the entry-segment market with smaller home sizes. Builders predict that home sizes will trend lower as the entry-level segme
nt gets more attention.
Source: “Market Share of 5,000+Square Foot Homes Decline,” National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing blog (Nov. 8, 2017)
