Incredible shrinking lots

NEW YORK – Oct. 6, 2006 – The detached, single-family home with a big yard is disappearing -- and where it still exists, few buyers can afford it.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the median new one-family house, a category that includes attached units, was 2,227 square feet in 2005, up 40 percent from 1976. But the median lot size has fallen 12.6 percent to 8,847 square feet.

“Land costs are going up continuously,” says Gopal Ahluwalia, staff vice president for research at the National Association of Home Builders. “The homebuyer is willing and has been willing to buy a smaller lot, but not a smaller house.”

Detached single-family homes have accounted for more than 60 percent of occupied U.S. housing for at least the past eight years, according to census data, but other types of dwellings are gaining ground on the East and West Coast where land is particularly expensive.

Still, of all construction permits issued nationwide last year, 78 percent were for single-family homes.

Source: Reuters News, Lisa Von Ahn (10/02/06)

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