The McMansion Strikes Back: New American Homes are Larger than Ever

"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…"