American homeowners are wasting more space than ever | Real Time Headlines

There may not be many homes for sale these days, but there are still plenty of vacant spaces. In fact, it’s the most in recorded history.

The number of extra bedrooms, defined as one bedroom for more people in a home, including an office, has reached its highest level since the U.S. Census began recording this metric in 1970, according to a survey. .

Last year, 31.9 million new bedrooms were added, compared with 31.3 million in 2022, according to the latest census figures.

This quadrupling of growth comes as the number of people per household declines, from a high of 3.1 people per household in 1970 to an all-time low of 2.5 people per household in 2023.

“We’re seeing more guest rooms for two main reasons: homes are getting bigger and families are getting smaller,” said Ralph McLaughlin, senior economist at Realtor.com. “More importantly, we found “Empty rooms are more popular in cheaper areas where it’s cheaper to buy a home with an extra bedroom.”

Beginning in the 1980s, builders began a massive expansion, and during the famous “McMansion” era, the average size of new homes continued to expand. But they stopped growing about a decade ago; much of that has to do with rising costs and consumer demands for energy efficiency and the environment.

As a result, the average number of bedrooms per household has increased over the past 50 years, from an average of 2.5 rooms in 1970 to 2.8 rooms in 2023, but has remained unchanged over the past 10 years.

Regionally, since all real estate is local, excess space trends are highest in the Mountain West and South. Reports say this is simply because there is more land and the homes have larger floor plans. The dynamic in urban housing is exactly the opposite.

“If people valued having extra space, then we weren’t overbuilding in the McHausen era. But if homebuyers tolerated these larger homes just because they were available, then maybe we did overbuild a bit over the past few decades. “Yeah,” McLaughlin added.

The 10 markets with the highest proportion of total bedrooms considered surplus are:

1. Ogden, Utah (12.2%)
2. Colorado Springs, Colorado (12.1%)
3. Salt Lake City, Utah (12%)
4. Memphis, Tennessee (11.8%)
5. Atlanta (11.6%)
6. Cleveland (11.3%)
7. Wichita, Kansas (11.3%)
8. Columbia, South Carolina (10.8%)
9. Charleston, South Carolina (10.7%)
10. Jackson, Mississippi (10.7%)

The 10 markets with the lowest proportion of total bedrooms considered surplus are:

1. Miami (5.9%)
2. Sarasota, Florida (6.4%)
3. New York (6.5%)
4. Los Angeles (6.6%)
5. New Haven, Connecticut (6.7%)
6. Worcester, Massachusetts (6.9%)
7. Stockton, California (6.9%)
8. Bakersfield, California (7%)
9. Honolulu area (7%)
10. Providence, Rhode Island (7.1%)