According to new date from the U.S. Census, McMansions are back. In fact, the data indicates that the housing crash and recession was a temporary pause in the long-term trend of the always-expanding American home.
"Census data released Monday on the characteristics of new single-family housing construction confirms that the median size of a new pad in America is bigger than it's ever been," reports Emily Badger.
"In 2013, the median size of a new single-family home completed in the United States was 2,384 square feet (the average, not surprisingly, was tugged even higher by the mega-mega home: 2,598 square feet). That median is above the pre-crash peak of 2,277 square feet in 2007, and it dwarfs the size of homes we were building back in 1973 (median size then: 1,525 square feet)."
The growth cannot be explained by larger families needing larger houses: "Our homes have been getting larger as our households have actually been shrinking. So the long-running American appetite for ever bigger homes can't be explained by the need to fit more people into them…"
Read the full story: The housing crash did nothing to tamp our appetite for enormous houses
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