The improvements in home construction have diminishing returns. For example my county now requires residential fire sprinkler systems. Such systems aren’t cheap

The improvements in home construction have diminishing returns. For example my county now requires residential fire sprinkler systems. Such systems aren’t cheap but also don’t provide any real payoff to homeowner on average. Improved insulation and air sealing is nice, but you’re not going to see anything close to $200k in energy savings over the building’s life vs just blasting your furnace to a comfortable temperature. Houses certainly have increased in size though.