Housing Choices in Today’s Market Average Square Feet of New Housing Units Single Family Vs. Multi Family Units 2000 to 2014
February 5,
2016 by in General 
This is the third in a series of five factoids studying the recovering housing market by delving into the primary factors that determine a consumer’s home choices. Not only faced with the decision to rent or buy, households planning to move are making choices based on age, size and cost of housing structures.
This factoid shows that one thing is clear, single-family houses keep getting bigger. The average size of a new single-family home has grown 17.2 percent from 2,266 square feet in 2000 to 2,657 square feet in 2014. Meanwhile new apartment construction, which peaked in 2008 at 1,300 square feet on average, is holding now at 1,151 square feet.
Our next two factoids in this series will explore financial characteristics of the housing market by detailing monthly mortgage and rent costs as well as the percentage of household income spent on housing.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, Survey of Construction