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There may not be many homes for sale these days, but there are plenty of vacant homes. In fact, the most in recorded history.
According to one study, the number of additional bedrooms (defined as bedrooms in excess of the number of people in the home, including bedrooms for offices) has reached its highest level since the U.S. Census began recording this metric in 1970. . New report from Realtor.com.
Last year, the most recent census data available, the number of additional bedrooms reached 31.9 million, up from 31.3 million in 2022. In 1980, there were only 7 million additional bedrooms.
This four-fold jump comes as the number of people in certain households has declined, from a high of 3.1 people per household in 1970 to a record low of 2.5 people per household by 2023. It became.
“Rooms are increasing for two main reasons: homes are getting bigger and households are getting smaller,” said Ralph McLaughlin, senior economist at Realtor.com. “Additionally, we find that spare rooms are more popular in lower-cost areas where it is more affordable to purchase a home with an extra bedroom.”
The average size of new homes grew during the famous “McMansion” era beginning in the 1980s, when builders went big. However, they stopped growing about 10 years ago. Much of this has to do with both rising costs, as well as energy efficiency and environmental demands from consumers.
This means that over the past 50 years, the average number of bedrooms per home has increased from an average of 2.5 bedrooms in 1970 to 2.8 bedrooms in 2023, while remaining unchanged over the past 10 years.
Regionally, the tendency for excess space is highest in the Mountain West and South because all real estate is local. The report says that’s simply because there is more land and homes are being built with larger floor plans. Urban housing has exactly the opposite dynamics.
“If people valued having extra space, then we wouldn’t have overbuilt in the McMansion era. But if homebuyers valued simply what was available, “If we’re tolerating these big houses, we’ve probably overbuilt a little bit over the past few decades,” McLaughlin said. Added.
The 10 markets with the highest percentage of total bedrooms considered excessive are:
Ogden, Utah (12.2%) Colorado Springs, Colorado (12.1%) Salt Lake City, Utah (12%) Memphis, Tennessee (11.8%) Atlanta (11.6%) Cleveland (11.3%) Wichita, Kansas (11.3%) South Columbia, Carolina (10.8%)Charleston, South Carolina (10.7%)Jackson Miss (10.7%)
The 10 markets with the lowest percentage of total bedrooms considered excessive are:
Miami (5.9%) Sarasota, FL (6.4%) New York (6.5%) Los Angeles (6.6%) New Haven, CT (6.7%) Worcester, MA (6.9%) Stockton, CA (6.9%) Bakersfield, CA ( 7%) Honolulu area (7%) Providence, Rhode Island (7.1%)
