If you’re thinking about having a home built, a lot of the price comes down to the size of house you want. You may even be able to work out exactly what you’ll need to pay per square foot, and you can then adjust the designs based on your budget.
How much house do you need? Studies have found that the average size in the United States has really grown over the years. Keeping up with the Joneses could get expensive.
If you go back to 1950, the National Association of Home Builders claims that the average size for a house was a mere 983 square feet. Jump forward to 1970, and that size had increased all the way to 1,500 square feet. By 2004, the average home in the United States was a massive 2,349 square feet. That’s more than twice as big as it was just 50 years before.
For what it’s worth, sizes have dropped somewhat after 2004. There has been a rise in the popularity of tiny homes, which are often well under 500 square feet. The recession also took a toll, as people couldn’t afford massive homes, though the economy has largely bounced back from that after the decline around 2009.
Of course, the size of the home you need depends on the specifics of your situation, and you absolutely do not need to follow the trends. If you think the ’50s had it right with homes under 1,000 square feet, you can go that route. No matter what you choose, just make sure you know what legal steps to take.
