When I first read these stories I thought they were referring to the very large, by square footage, homes. Like the average home size of 2,800 sq ft in Utah.
But nope – a “large home” in their definition is one having 3 or more bedrooms (even if one room is used as an office) – even if the home is 1500 sq ft it is a “big home”: Boomers Bought Up the Big Homes. Now They’re Not Budging. – WSJ
Average New Home Size by Decade
- 920: 1,048 square feet
- 1930: 1,129
- 1940: 1,177
- 1950: 983
- 1960: 1,289
- 1970: 1,500
- 1980: 1,740
- 1990: 2,080
- 2000: 2,266
- 2010: 2,392
- 2014: 2,657
Average Size of US Homes, Decade by Decade (newser.com)
The above is also why news entertainment reports comparing home prices by decade are useless – they never normalize the data to square footage such that they end up comparing apples and oranges. The home our parents bought in the ’50s or ’60s is not the new home being purchased in 2020.
Average home sizes by U.S. state and EU country
My home is less than 2,000 sq ft but has 3 bedrooms, one of which is used as an office. This is an old home that doesn’t have an “office” in the modern sense. But shows up in the above stats as a “Big Home” because it has 2 bedrooms and an office.
Also, reminder – “Generation Labels” are essentially useless and pointless except to write divisive entertainment articles in the MSM: Demographics: Age ranges for “Named Generations” – Coldstreams
