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For single family homes square footage alone has a fairly modest impact on housing prices. Land, driveway, number and quality of fixtures, electrical hookups,
by Retric 1y ago
For single family homes square footage alone has a fairly modest impact on housing prices.
Land, driveway, number and quality of fixtures, electrical hookups, cabinets, countertops, doors, clearing land, water, sewage, etc can be nearly identical costs for a 1,000 sf or a 3,000sf home. Many things like wall insulation and heating demand increase sub linearly with square footage.
Which is why home builders so heavily favor large homes by historic standards. This is slightly less true of high rises, but making the building wider doesn’t require more elevators, internal hallways, etc.
- sokoloff 1y agoA 1000 sqft, 3BR, 1 Bath, basic kitchen unit will be cheaper than a 3000 sqft 4BR, 2.5 Bath, fancy kitchen unit. Builders (and most everyone else involved in real estate) make a lot more money on the latter than the former, though.
- Retric 1y agoCheaper sure, but a large fraction of the difference is that extra 1.5 bathroom and fancy kitchen. Plus all the other little difference like more larger and nicer windows.
- sokoloff 1y agoExactly; those are the things that are needed to turn "smaller more affordable homes would be a better solution" into reality.
- Retric 1y agoI’m not sure I get your point. If the utility of a home is largely a function of size, but the cost is largely a function of location and amenities then there’s little benefit to specifically building smaller homes rather than less expensive homes.
- sokoloff 1y agoNo one is seeking to build smaller; they're seeking to build less expensive. Building smaller (specifically reducing square footage, baths, and kitchen amenities [which are a mix of size and non-size elements], and using less land [going up, sharing walls/roofs, eliminating private outdoor space, etc.]) is the mechanism by which the goal of less expensive can be met.
- Retric 1y ago“Size” within the normal range of homes is only going to save you 2-5% on its own. It’s not useless, but doesn’t actually make that meaningful of difference while significantly impacting the homes utility. Amenities on the other hand can literally 2X+ the cost of a home.