Less money, less house: How market forces are reshaping the American home

The new American home is shrinking.

After years of prioritizing large homes, the nation’s biggest and most powerful home builders are finally building more smaller ones, driving a shift toward more affordable housing.

The boom in smaller construction has cut median new-home sizes by 4 percent in the past year, to 2,179 square feet, census data shows, the lowest reading since 2010. That’s helped bring down overall costs and contributed to a 6 percent dip in new-home prices in the same period.

Altogether, this wave of new construction promises a crucial first step toward addressing a critical shortage of starter homes that has sidelined first-time home buyers and contributed to inflation.

The stand-alone houses she toured were well beyond her $450,000 budget. Cheshire looked for six weeks, was outbid twice and eventually landed a newly constructed townhouse for $408,000.

They began looking again — on a smaller scale. Last month, they closed on a home that’s about 25 percent smaller, with three bedrooms instead of four. And, at $273,000, it was under budget.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/10/smaller-new-houses-afforable/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzEwMjE2MDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzExNTk4Mzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MTAyMTYwMDAsImp0aSI6ImMwOTE0ZTZjLTIxZTEtNGUxZC05MmY4LWVkNmE4Y2NlNDYyMyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9idXNpbmVzcy8yMDI0LzAzLzEwL3NtYWxsZXItbmV3LWhvdXNlcy1hZmZvcmFibGUvIn0.7x1qJNYDhUe2qwClBW11CZbQ2suDKmydytW5xxWtwwA