Newly Built Apartments Getting Smaller
The average size of newly built apartments in 2022 has decreased to 887 square feet, down from the 941 square foot average 10 years ago, RentCafe reports.
In a report using Yardi Matrix data to analyze the top 100 cities and newly built apartments, the study found that the need for more housing created one of the highest levels of construction activity in 50 years.
Some highlights of the report:
- Studios and one-bedrooms accounted for a record-breaking 57 percent of all new apartments built last year, amid a construction boom.
- 2022 saw the largest year-over-year decrease in apartment size in a decade, down 30 square feet. Despite the pandemic putting a spotlight on the importance of elbow room, the trend persisted after some minor spikes in 2020 and 2021.
- Seattle is one of the few large cities that continues to have the smallest apartments in the country — with an average of only 659 square feet in 2022, or 30 square feet less than 10 years prior.
- Tallahassee, FL, boasts the largest apartments in the country (1,182 square feet), followed by Gainesville, FL; Mobile, AL; Knoxville, TN; and Marietta, GA. In fact, Tallahassee apartments increased by 191 square feet in the last decade (or 16.2%).
- Apartments in Tucson, AZ, saw the largest increase in apartment size.
Not All Types Of Apartments Grew Smaller
The 30-square-foot decline in the size of new apartments doesn’t mean that all types of units shrank when compared to 2021.
Rather, larger apartments with three bedrooms actually grew by 15 square feet.
Apartments In The South Are Largest
In 2022, the average size of an apartment in the South was 993 square feet.
That means that renters in the South enjoyed an extra 106 square feet compared to the national average. On the other hand, renters in the Pacific Northwest had the least amount of space with only 776 square feet — 111 less than the national average apartment size.
Tucson was one exception
With the average size of apartments in Tucson, AZ, increasing by 300 square feet (29 percent), renters enjoyed the biggest gain in terms of space out of all 100 cities on our list. Moreover, the average size of new apartments during the last 10 years here was 1,037 square feet. This makes Tucson one of the best cities for renters who need the extra space.
Source: Rental Housing Journal
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