Demand for houses of historically large size may have finally peaked
- The average size of new houses in 2021 was 2,480 square feet, down 7 percent from the 2015 peak of 2,687.
- In the 48 years from 1973 to 2015, the average size increased by 62 percent, and the quality of housing also increased substantially
- US homes, on a square-foot-per-person basis, remain quite large by historical standards
- With mortgage rates surging, inflation soaring, and real wages falling-and thus home price affordability falling-that there are now good reasons for builders to think "wow, maybe we need to build some smaller" homes.
How Government Policy Led to a Codification of Larger, More Expensive Houses
- Various government regulations and fees, such as "impact fees," which are the same regardless of the size of the unit, "incentivize developers to build big."
- If zoning allows no more than two units per acre, the incentive will be to build the biggest, most expensive units possible.
- Community groups opposed to anything that sounds like "density" or "upzoning" will use the power of local governments to crush developer attempts to build more affordable housing.
- Eventually, something has to give. Either governments persist indefinitely with restrictions on "undesirable" housing - which means housing costs skyrocket - or local governments finally start to allow builders to build housing more appropriate to the needs of the middle class.
https://mises.org/wire/housing-getting-less-affordable-governments-are-making-it-worse
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