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Housing costs are only going up because people are buying/renting bigger houses (despite the fact that mean houshold size has decreased by almost a full person
by harryh 7y ago
Housing costs are only going up because people are buying/renting bigger houses (despite the fact that mean houshold size has decreased by almost a full person in 50 years).
On a per square foot basis, you don't really see an increase.
http://www.aei.org/publication/new-us-homes-today-are-1000-square-feet-larger-than-in-1973-and-living-space-per-person-has-nearly-doubled/ http://www.aei.org/publication/new-us-homes-today-are-1000-s...
- jdavis703 7y agoHow does this explain the price increases in older, urban housing stock? I’ve been renting 500-600 sq. ft. one bedroom apartments for the past seven years. My rent has gone up from $1900 a month to now $2790 month. This is all within the same zip code.
- harryh 7y agoThere are definitely some outliers, particularly in urban centers (primarily due to overly restrictive zoning codes). I was speaking about averages.
- Aloha 7y agoYou also make a good point, in many places zoning would prohibit construction of identical replacements of much of the housing that is located there. One of the commenters on the article you linked makes a good point: "new single family homes are a very small part of the real estate market. most of the big price moves have been in urban areas where single family dwellings uncommon and new homes extremely rare."