Reddit recently discussed the average size of a house in the 50 US states, and compared it to average European house sizes. Click the image for a larger view.
I grew up in an old Cape Dutch-style house in Cape Town, South Africa. It was double-storied, with massive clay brick walls over two feet thick, which provided insulation against heat or cold depending on the season. I daresay overall size must have been in the 3,000+ square foot range. It remains the largest home I've ever had. When I left home I moved to a studio apartment (i.e. one room, no separate bedroom) of not much more than 200 square feet, including kitchenette and bathroom. I progressed through several apartments until I ended up, in the late 1980's, owning one with about 1,900 square feet and four bedrooms.
Coming to America, I stayed in church rectories for several years, so I didn't think anything in particular about their size. Today, my wife and I live in a relatively small house (by Texas standards) of about 1,400 square feet, including a rear porch converted to a small storeroom-cum-office where I'm writing these words. It's not too big for two physically limited people to handle the cleaning and routine maintenance, but not so small that we can't invite guests to stay from time to time. The size fits our needs and injury-related restrictions pretty well.
How about you, readers? What size is your present home, and how well does that suit your needs? Tell us about it in Comments, so we can compare notes.
Peter
40 comments:
We downsized 15 years ago from 3200SF with 3 car garage/ inground pool with hot tub to 1285SF on a quarter acre. Last year with declining health we sold it and moved to a 800SF apartment. Life is much easier= something breaks just Email/ no yard to keep. Just have to get use to people being around and traffic noise. We be done until we are forced into assisted living (if we can afford that).
Downsized from a monstrous 3250 square foot mini-mansion in Florida to something less than half that size (and less than a quarter of the price) in Arkansas. Our present home is 1350 sf, just enough for two aging humans and an elderly hound dog. Best choice we have made since we got married.
2000 Sq Ft (3 bed, 2 bath) and a 165 Sq Ft outbuilding I use for my office and sewing space.
I'd prefer a different arrangement of rooms, and maybe a few more walls (kitchen/dining/family rooms are one big space, with a huge opening to the living room, so the only closed spaces are bedrooms), but I would not want to downsize. I wouldn't mind bringing in a dumpster and getting rid of half the stuff in the house, though.
Home for the past 29 years is 3br, approx. 1800 sq ft. on a small urban lot. It worked well for a family of 4, but it's really too much house for us now that the kids are gone. We're hoping to build a retirement home on a (much) larger property in a rural location. Planning to do about 1400 sq ft with two good sized bedrooms and an open floorplan living/dining/kitchen area that will be easy to heat with a wood stove, clear sight lines to the road and a sign on the property line that says "if you can read this, you're in range."
Grew up in a 980sf house. Family of 6. Now have a family of 5 in an 1100sf house. Never felt crowded in either.
Cannot even imagine *needing* 900 extra sf, much less heating, cooling, cleaning, and maintaining it. WTF are people thinking? It's not like everybody else has ten kids to bring the average up so high. That's just people living in houses with a crapton of inefficiently-used space, and doing a lot of unnecessary cleaning.
That kind of statistic makes me feel like... what? Does everybody have hired domestic help except me? No way. That's got to be a handful of absurd neighborhoods full of grossly bloated houses owned by people who have literally nothing more constructive to do with their money, and run by armies of maids and landscapers, skewing the averages.
What's the *median* house square footage in each state?
My wife, and daughter spent 24 years in a 3br 2ba 1,100 sq ft house on 1/6th ac in CA then we moved to a 3 br 2ba 2,100 sq ft house on 2ac in Arizona. Even with more space we have smaller closets and less functional space.
We are building a custom ~2,400 sq ft house with detached garage on 7 ac to retire.
Europe has been "developed" for a long time, a small stone house built 500 years ago is still being used, not so in the US!
I wonder what size the average US house was in 1900?
Currently I have about 900 square feet of living space. It's plenty, and after we downsized 6 years ago, more than necessary. The larger the area, the higher the utility bills, taxes, upkeep, and less to keep clean. With me, retirement meant taking care of less, and more time to enjoy what life brings.
We actually upsized from 2400 sqft to 3500 when we moved from PA to the mountains of Western NC. The lot and development we are in sort of screamed for this type and size of home. We use most of the space, though not the other bedrooms (2) unless we have guests. I use one as my office and my wife's office is on the bridge upstairs. We love the view, which is why we are here--12 miles to the blue ridge parkway with a 100 degree view and not a home or chimney in sight!
Bill
Dunno the exact square footage of our house, probably around 2,000 sf, but we nearly doubled the original footprint with a needed addition to our home almost a decade ago (our kitchen was WAY too small for 4 people who cook and preserve quantities of food).
Mom and Dad won't be moving out unless they absolutely must, and for now it mostly suits our needs, though a lot of space is currently wasted as our old kitchen and the downstairs family room are unused except as a repository for everyone's stuff. We have 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, and 2 kitchens on 2 floors and a split basement/root cellar. We live in town, on a 1/2 acre lot (thanks, Brigham Young!), with half of that being garden.
We also own the house next door. My dad has a history of buying properties to spite developers and out-of-town rental situations, so we rent the house out and Dad has turned the garage into a too-small machine and welding shop and there's a 1/2 acre orchard behind that.
If we optimized, we could probably grow even more food than we currently do, but I'm not sure I have the energy to keep up with that, honestly.
How much work is done at home? some people with big McMansions have unused rooms filled with unused pristine furniture, and some people with big homes have rooms for offices, looms, spinning wheels, saws, lathes, libraries etc.
Work space is important.
An eye opening comparison would be how many homes around the world would stop a bullet, and where they are.
The house we are building in Central AZ will be cover, not just concealment.... :-)
We bought our home in 1996 as a young married couple (mid 20's), 1,500 SF. Austin vicinity. Was perfect for the two of us, was super crowded as we raised our two kids. Youngest is heading to college in August, so it'll be a good fit again soon.
2300 sq ft. 4 bedrooms 2 bath. Built in 1932 so its sturdy. Have my office in another room. Have a room we use for storage. Dining room and kitchen are small. Have a mudroom where the washer and dryer are. Have a nice back porch.
The side of my duplex I live in is ~900ish. I'm in the process of rebuilding a foreclosure I bought a while back, it's actually in the neighborhood and was the same as my duplex until one of the previous owners converted it to a single 4 bedroom and somehow put in a full basement. I plan on moving there once the work is done, it will be around 2,700 sf or so.
Ours is 1800 square feet. 4 bed/2 bath.
Kitchen is "Galley Style" U- shaped and way too small.
Great room is huge, 26' x 16' but the bedrooms are small.
We use all of it, for living or storage.
It suits us, and a "Toe-Tag House"
That is realtor speak for the house you intend to stay in until they carry you out.
Our home is about the same size, 36' X 48' but that includes the outside carport that holds two cars end to end. Two parents and two adult kids (one autistic), the other child moving out when the opportunity presents itself. Both parents low 60 age, so our 'stuff' takes up quite a bit of room. Another bedroom about 14'x 14' would be just right. Property is 50' wide by 110' deep so outside isn't too much for the two of us to handle. Glad Texas has no income tax, but property taxes are pretty high (but not California / New York high).
When we first got married, my wife and I lived in a 14'X60" (840 sq ft) mobile home. It was three bedrooms, two full baths. Nice enough. After about three years, we moved to a three bedroom, one and a half bath Colonial with a full basement. It was about 1750 sq ft. We were there for the next 21 years. Our current home (lived here for the past 22 years and counting) is a 4 bedroom, 2 and 1/2 bath, 2400 sq ft Colonial. We moved because this home has a large family room/living room on the main floor and a reasonably large open room directly upstairs from whence the four bedrooms branch off. That large room upstairs became the school room for our homeschooled children, and the downstairs family room/living room became the gathering room for our extended family for Thanksgiving Dinner. Last year we had 26 relatives for dinner. Oh yeah, if also has about 330 sq ft of garden out back.
We'll move again when it becomes too onerous to maintain into something much smaller.
Waidmann
Hubby and I downsized from a 2400 sq ft, two-story, 5-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath with a library and formal dining room we built on a half acre to a 975 sq ft, 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment. The daughter and I bought a 1200 sq ft, 2-bedroom, 2-bath, with den, double-wide, in a trailer park. I'm still de-junking. I can almost get everything in the closets and cabinets, now. If I were by myself, a studio or one-bedroom apartment would be more than adequate for me IF it had washer/dryer hook-ups, as I'm not into yard work or a lot of entertaining.
Just to upset the mix, I add this. A family with long roots in England moved to the U.S.
Their home is truly a mansion, well over 10,000 sf. The home is like a museum, rather a mausoleum. Large ornate rooms full of furniture that you are not allowed to sit upon.
I grew up in Wherry housing, ~1,100 sf.
After separation, my parents moved us to a 1,400 SF home, but added a 1,200 SF addition. Four bedrooms, two baths, two home offices, one a sewing room/painters studio for Mom.
My house before my current abode was 1,100 sf, three bed, two bath. One bedroom was my office. My current home is less than 900 SF. Plenty of space for me. I do miss my workshop. Rent for such a shop is prohibitively expensive and with too restrictive terms.
It is apples and oranges to compare yurp with the U.S. Far too many similarities in cultural practices. The point is purely academic.
As a homebuilder, I sometimes built those houses. I couldn't call them homes as I will show why.
One example, the epitome of the absurd: a young couple just arrived from the big city. Just him and her, no children and no plans for children. The house was three story, one story below grade, not an actual basement. Over 12,000 SF. Five bedrooms, 5 full baths, two half baths. A 20 seat theater, a large workout room, an extensive wine cellar, but only a starter collection of awful cheap wine. I present the nouveau riche. He had an irritating attitude to match.
I grew up in Illinois mostly in 1 4-BR 2.5 bath home with a basement. I just looked it up on Zillow and it says it's officially 2,035 sq ft (which ignores the basement) so overall probably close to 3,000 sq ft.
After moving from there I had a maybe 250 sq ft dorm room in college (complete with roommate), then a lot of apartments that ranged from 600-900 sq ft.
Ended up moving in with my mom in the new house she and my dad had purchased in Utah when they relocated there before their divorce. It's listed as 2,800 sq ft without basement, but the basement's fully finished so nearly doubles that total. My parents bought a large house so that in theory all their kids, their spouses, and the grandkids could all stay with them at the same time and not need to use hotels.
I moved out from there to a 1,200 sq ft townhouse and have lived her 15 years now. My wife and I share in the cleaning and it takes maybe 45-60 minutes a week to keep up, is all.
Downsized 16 months ago from 3100 sq. ft. on 1/3 of an acre in a suburban cul-de-sac and moved to a 1000 sq ft. cabin on a ridge top with 77 wooded acres and a killer view. House/cabin really is too small (1 bedroom/1 bathroom with an open loft and back store room) but manageable for just the two of us. Hope someday to build something modestly larger and more functional (i.e. 1800 sq. ft. + basement for storage and storm shelter). We do have a pole barn, a separate 2.5 car garage (on concrete with electricity) and two sheds (one with electricity). Plus a well and a wood stove and a Generac and a 1000 gallon propane tank. Wouldn't trade our peace, privacy, and wonderful 'neighbors' for any suburban mcmansion. Plus it's all fully paid for. We are blessed.
Live in a large country house I was on the building crew years ago.
Large enough that even during the virus stay-at-home games we were comfortable and could find some quiet space.
Perhaps about four times the size of Peter's.
Living in the snowbelt that extra space is very welcome when it is -25c outside.
Enough space to bring in errant family and houseguests. An extra six or so is easy-peasy, more in a pinch.
2600 SF which is too large, plus a finished basement, but I work from home, our grandson lives here most of the school year and we have room for everyone when the kids visit.
1900 square foot true, old school, "Western ranch" house that REALLY LOOKS Old West. I don't need more house. I need LESS JUNK! The place has "good bones" and bad paint! Whatever. It fits right in with the 3rd World country California has become... 'Stands out about as much as dandruff on a snowdrift.
The big plus is that the house is sitting on an acre of land, and has a corral with a horse barn/workshop. Plenty of tools, a tractor, and no horses. We also set up a 32ft 5th wheel out back as a "casita," with power, water, and its own septic tank. ...Come to think of it, that trailer's interior is in better shape than the interior of the house!
I mostly grew up in my granndparents' ranch house - somewhere in the 2500-3000 square foot range I think, on a smallish (by rural standards) 40 acre parcel.
My wife and I had a couple of small apartments, then bought a 1300 square foot townhouse, upgrading to a 1500 square foot 3 bedroom/2 bath house (on a 6000 square foot lot) a few years later. After a decade we upgraded to our current house - a 1920 square foot 4 bedroom/2 bath "ranch house" on a 1/4 acre lot.
I'm about to retire, but we're unlikely to move again - we like our neighborhood, and if it seemed smallish when our kids were in their teens now that they're grown and flown our place seems positively spacious, with room for visits but not too big for us to keep up. Though I'm *not* looking forward to the round of kitchen and bath renovations we have planned for the next year or so.
"How much work is done at home?" - As little as possible, though often the full capability to work 90-100% from home is maintained. The lack of socialization from working at home, compounded with a the blurring of the home-work separation turns a lot of folk off from working at home. And then there are some who fully work from home as their norm. Bully for them.
"Work space is important." - Not always a great idea to have this in the living quarters, and a segregated workshop area is preferred. The separation control health, power, and mental hygiene, though it does complicate things if a defensive posture needs to be established. The separate workshop may also double as a quarantine area for overall household health management. Or as a temporary morgue if the need arises.
"An eye opening comparison would be how many homes around the world would stop a bullet, and where they are." - Earthships, stone, and dense masonry homes are resistant, few stick-built homes have the mass to withstand directed fire, though the multiple layers in older homes have some track record of providing some protection. Seldom are doors, windows and penetrating objects made truly bullet resistant, and I've not seen very many non-combat zone structures with highly resistant roofs.
1100 off grid in Alaska. Mostly wood heat, water running as fast as the carrier can run the jugs from the truck?
Living in a 3,300 ft2 4/3.5/3 one story in Fort Bend County, Texas on 1.2 acres, south of Rosenberg. The wife and I and our 37 year old disabled daughter. Two a/c units, detached three car garage with a 10 foot extension (a Texas basement). We have a liquid cooled natural gas fired Generac that just took us through hurricane Beryl just fine.
I want to build a air conditioned shop that I can also park an RV in behind the garage but the $200/ft2 price is too high for a 1,200 ft2 building with a kitchenette, single bedroom, and a bathroom. I want it ADA too should my 85 year old father precede my wheelchair bound 83 year old mother but she will probably end up in assisted living should that happen.
I have lived in a 24' RV, about 200sq', full time for 14 years now. Prior to that I lived in one bedroom apartments or studios for 10 years or so. Also had a one bed room apartment in Bulgaria that was comparable in size. One year in a shared 3 bedroom apartment where my bed room was maybe 100+sq'.
I don't need, or want, much room.
Current house is ~1500 (in Japan). previous was ~2500 (in France). Townhouse before that (Silicone Valley) ~1800.
Only the French house was anywhere close to bullet proof. Parts of it pre-dated the French revolution and it used the immense stone wall on the downhill side to compensate for a lack of foundation anywhere else.
I'm late to the party...and very odd. First thing to know, I am the 7th generation of my family to live here. 2nd thing, it actually is three households: my husband and I, my elderly father, and my mother in her completely separate life (she has her own kitchen, own entrance, own everything including boyfriend). So five adults.
Anyway. 7000 f---- feet. Much too large. (the family plus guests used to be 20 plus people, but that was before WWI) A massive section of it is actually a museum (the house is on the National Register for its intact interior/library/etc). We don't so much live in the house as live through it. There are spaces that I only visit to check structural integrity.
Aside from a string of interesting UK flats, I've never lived anywhere else. It is odd. My brother hates it, my sister in law Really hates it. My nieces, who would be generation 8, really, really hate it. My grandmother always said that what we ought to do is have a good Viking Funeral and burn it all down. But, it was the pinnacle of the Gilded Age of New England... I love it. But, I understand my grandmother so very, very well.
Even later to the party, I suppose. I grew up living in smallish 1,000-1,200 sf houses, most of them build just after WWII: 2-3 bedrooms, 1 bath: four children and a foster child for a couple of years. After that, I lived in rentals of about the same size for 15 years, most of that time with one child. My current house is a 1,100 cottage on a narrow lot: 2 bedroom, 2 bath, and an extra room that we use as a den or study. It's kind of cramped at the moment, as my adult daughter and toddler son share it. Basically, we have two households crammed into one structure.
My daughter wants a 3,000 sf house for herself, when she makes a pile in real estate in a couple of years. Then, I expect that my little cottage won't feel quite so cramped! (Those with a similar footprint in my neighborhood sell really, really fast these days: perfect for a small family, a single adult, or a retiree couple.)
Home am currently renting is a 2 bed/2 bath with about 1000 square feet, not including the 1-car garage. It works reasonably well.
I grew up in a 600 sq ft house. after my second sister was born i moved up to the unfinished uninsulated attic it can get real cold in michigan in the winter. I still cant sleep in a room over 70 degrees. In the air force I was barracks for a total of 3 years out of 12 the other 9 were in trailers apartments and a nice 1200 foot duplex for 6 years at Wurtsmith AFB. After that i have lived in1000 sq ft homes. I’m 75 now and we could probably enjoy an apt if I could give up all my tools and gun stuff I no longer use. Maybe because i was poor growing up and early in married life i cant let things go. I have given my sons a lot of guns but I buy more. I’n sitting her typing with one hand that doesnt work too well because of a stroke and other arm is strapped to my side because i just had a total shoulder replacement. My doctor told me my rifle days are over. Will have to let my 8mm, 30-06, 30-30 and 12 gauge go will keep a couple of 22’s and 223’s. Now if i. Could let the big tools go….
2200 square feet, which would be too large for just me. I'd probably do well in 1200 square feet or so, with a moderate sized yard. I need room for books, me, and a guest or two. And a good kitchen. The whole apartment-without-kitchen never made sense to me.
TXRed
difference between Free Men and Peasants
I very much appreciate your stories and blog. I hope that you and your wife have better health in the future.
We live in a house on the Southern shore of Burrard Inlet, Vancouver BC. Not that large but we have a ground level suite with wonderful tenants. Views of about 160’ looking WNW through ENE include Burrard Inlet and the North Shore mountains.
I’m a little surprised that you didn’t relocate to the “Pacific Northwest” or Canada when you moved to North America.
I have read your blog and books for over a decade and hope that you have many wonderful years ahead.
Cheers,
Lucky John
1100 sqft older house. It's kinda small for us. two adults and two children as well as a dog.
One of the three bedrooms (the largest) is used for my businesses office. It is gradually as health dictates being cleaned out so that the two pre-teen and teen girls can each have their own room before they kill each other. :)Office will move to shed that still needs to be cleaned out. Best thing about it is we now as of 3 or 4 years ago no longer share ownership with the bank.
I have a lot of stuff and not a lot of storage in the house. It makes it difficult. 2000 to 2400 sqft would be much more livable if done to our design. However the lower cost of repairs/maintenance/cooling/heating etc of a small place can't be disregarded. Though... with a new roof needed and no money to do it or health to do myself the maintenance side is creeping up on us.
I also have about 1300 sqft of outbuildings between a old school bus, great dane tractor trailer converted to a library, 2x ten by sixteen sheds, 1x ten by twenty shed, and one 8x12 shed on our almost an acre of land in the country. Sadly though that sounds impressive mostly they are stuffed floor to ceiling with crap and mostly unusable for any activity. :(
Love my overgrown yard that is very jungle like with over 80 fruit trees and hundreds of varieties of berry bushes and vines. Our very own food forest that the animals and birds steal all the large quantity of fruits and such that grow there. We have been taming it this year and it is loosing a lot of its wild charm. :( However a balance between usable and heavy growth is needed. I have noticed that everything produces better when more overgrown with double and triple layers of growth. Also yard stays cooler when not mowed flat. However mosquitoes are worse :)
this year we have actually had apples though we are a very marginal zone for that. Lets see varieties include but not limited to.. apples, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, pears, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, figs 5 or 6 varieties, persimmon, quince, grapes, pomegranate, pineapple guava, paw paw's, lots of tea plants of several varieties, mate, green/black tea, yapon tea, mayhew trees, some of the perennials are horse radish, turmeric, mint, stevia, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay tree, roses, asparagus, lemon grass,
15 chickens, 55lb dog, a pet rabbit that escaped years ago from my youngest daughter but still hangs out in the yard (no idea how it is still alive years later with the predators around)oh and a gifted new two finches, the gold fish died.
over all both me and my family love our imitation farm in the country. The kids friends love visiting the chicken pen to hold chickens and see the eggs, or see the little treehouses/forts the kids build in every nook and cranny they can get away with, or just go traipsing in the woods and fields adjacent to our property. We send them off with walkie talkies and they have to check in once in a while so we know all is good. its a good life.
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