It's official: Americans are kicking their addiction to square footage. According to a survey of 500 architects conducted earlier this year by the American Institute of Architects, only 4 percent of clients wanted more living space in their homes compared to 16 percent in 2008.
This isn't the only indicator that size doesn't matter quite as much in new-home construction. As reported by June Fletcher in The Wall Street Journal, the National Association of Home Builders released survey results in May of this year showing that the average home started in the first quarter of 2009 was 2,335 square feet, down from 2,629 square feet in the second quarter of 2008. A cozier home, indeed, though one that is still quite roomy compared to 1,200- to 1,600-square-foot Capes and ranch-style houses common during the post-World War II building boom.
Surprise! It's the Economy
Architects and builders say this shrinkage is due to a stock-market nosedive, mortgage-lending mess and other economic woes that have made consumers feel they must trim their spending. It's probably also due to builders feeling quite troubled by the real-estate downturn (see just how many troubled builders are out there at The Home Builder Implode-o-Meter page). No doubt many are cutting extraneous space from their designs to keep their own costs down.
Remember that the real run-up in square footage began more than 15 years ago and chugged in tandem with some major stock-market gains. Beginning in the 1990s, Toll Brothers Inc. and other mass-market builders pushed the square-footage on many home designs to more than 3,000 square feet for base models with many surpassing 4,000 square feet after the bonus rooms, gigantic master suites and finished basements were tacked on.
While the extra space often came at the expense of detail and character, it didn't seem to matter to buyers who wanted simply to have more space, blandness be damned. Vaulted-ceiling family rooms, double-height foyers and master bathrooms big enough to turn a cartwheel in were the norm in many new homes. And let's not forget the trend in which every child must have his or her own bedroom. It's as if sharing a bedroom, or admitting that your kids have to share a bedroom, says "inadequate."
It's not that the "smaller is better" folks haven't had some representation. In 1998, architect Sarah Susanka wrote "The Not So Big House," a bestseller that publicized her "build better, not bigger" approach. This movement has been popular enough to support five follow-up books and numerous interviews and speaking engagements. Trouble is, Susanka and her followers are inevitably overshadowed by the massive houses that have sprung up in farm field after farm field. The U.S. is a big country, and apparently its citizens prefer to spread out.
More Than Buyers Bargained for
Perhaps this downsizing in square footage -- or rightsizing, depending on how you look at it -- is also due to consumers' realizations that these built-behemoths require an awful lot of money and effort to furnish, heat, cool and maintain. Maybe you can afford to build or buy the big house, but can you afford to live in it?
As readers of this blog may know, I work in marketing for a residential real-estate brokerage. I visit many homes and talk with real-estate agents and clients every day about why sellers are listing their homes and what buyers are looking for. I can't tell you how often sellers say, "This is just too much space now that the kids are mostly out of the house," or "We're tired of keeping up this property. We want more freedom" -- or some variation of these.
Since last winter, when heating-oil prices skyrocketed, buyers are more sensitive than ever to the real cost of staying comfortable between November and April. Though newer homes often have energy-efficient windows and furnaces, trying to heat and cool large spaces and rooms with vaulted ceilings can still add up to much more money every month than owners anticipate. Tack on the cost of furnishing formal living rooms, family rooms, libraries, breakfast rooms, sunrooms, finished basements, etc., and you can see that the freedom that so much space seems to offer can quickly turn into a 4,000-square-foot prison.
It's official: Americans are kicking their addiction to square footage. According to a survey of 500 architects conducted earlier this year by the American Institute of Architects, only 4 percent of clients wanted more living space in their homes compared to 16 percent in 2008.