The newly built American home just got smaller than it’s been in fifteen years, so we pulled the Census series behind the average home size in the United States, back to 1973 and across every state. The median new single-family home finished last year measured 2,146 square feet, down 321 square feet from the 2015 peak, about a room and a half gone.
New homes are the smallest since 2009: the median single-family home completed last year came in at 2,146 square feet, 13 percent below the 2015 peak of 2,467.
The answer to “how big is a US home” depends on which homes you count: new builds run 2,146 square feet, the median home listed for sale is 1,842, and the average across all 123.5 million homes is 1,818.
Utah has the biggest homes of any state at 2,158 square feet on average, while DC, Hawaii, and California have the smallest.
The Midwest shrank hardest, down 17.1 percent from its peak to a median of 1,990 square feet, while the Northeast barely shrank at all.
Even after the decline, a new home is still 40.7 percent bigger than one built in 1973, and it houses a smaller household.
The 50-year trend, the state map, and the full table are below.
Are American homes shrinking?
Yes. The median new single-family home completed in 2024 measured 2,146 square feet, the smallest since 2009 and 13 percent below the 2015 peak of 2,467. Builders traded square footage for prices buyers could still finance.
The longer view softens the story. New homes grew steadily from 1,525 square feet in 1973 to that 2015 peak, a 61.8 percent climb, so the recent decline gives back only a third of the half-century gain and today’s new home is still 40.7 percent bigger than its 1973 counterpart. Per person, the math tilts further: a Human Progress analysis of Census data notes the average new home went from 1,634 square feet for a household of 3.06 people in 1972 to 2,614 square feet for a household of 2.51 by 2023.
Where does it go from here? The freshest quarterly reading puts the median completion at 2,163 square feet, and NAHB analysis of Census quarterly starts data projects home size leveling off in 2026 as mortgage rates ease. The one recent exception was 2021, when rock-bottom rates briefly pushed sizes back up.
Median (dark) and average (light) square feet of new single-family homes completed, 1973 through 2024. The 2021 uptick is the low-rate blip; the slide since 2015 is the shrink.
Source: Census Bureau, Survey of Construction, Characteristics of New Housing (completions).
Here is the average home size in the US by year, at the decade marks.
Average home size in the US by year: median and average square feet of new single-family homes completed, at the decade marks plus the 2015 peak.
Year
Median sq ft
Average sq ft
1973
1,525
1,660
1980
1,595
1,740
1990
1,905
2,080
2000
2,057
2,266
2010
2,169
2,392
2015 (peak)
2,467
2,687
2020
2,261
2,480
2024
2,146
2,364
How big is the average house in the US?
That depends on which houses you count, and the popular answers all come from different piles. Count only new single-family homes completed and the median is 2,146 square feet. Count the homes listed for sale right now and the median drops to 1,842, per the Realtor.com inventory series.
Count everything, all 123.5 million occupied homes including apartments, and the average is 1,818 square feet, per the Energy Information Administration’s residential survey. So the internet’s favorite numbers, roughly 1,800 and roughly 2,200 to 2,400, aren’t in conflict. They’re answering different questions, and headlines almost never say which.
The three true answers to “how big is the average American house?” Different sets of homes, different numbers, all current.
2,146sq ft, median NEW single-family home completedCensus SOC, newest annual
1,842sq ft, median home LISTED for saleRealtor.com via FRED, monthly
1,818sq ft, average across ALL homes incl. apartmentsEIA RECS, whole stock
Which state has the biggest houses?
Utah, at 2,158 square feet on average across its whole housing stock, with Iowa and New Hampshire just behind at about 2,100. Big-family culture and big-lot suburbs do the work. At the bottom sit DC at 1,185, Hawaii at 1,452, and California at 1,504, with New York and Nevada next.
You may have seen a much bigger Utah number, 2,800 square feet, from American Home Shield’s 2022 listings-based Home Size Index. Both are real. That one measures single-family homes listed for sale; ours measures every home people live in, apartments included, which is why it runs smaller everywhere.
Map: average home size by state, ranked largest to smallest. Average square feet per housing unit across the whole stock, apartments included, darkest = largest (Utah, 2,158 sq ft).Average home size by state in square feet per housing unit, from DC’s 1,185 up to Utah’s 2,158. Whole-stock universe.
Source: Energy Information Administration, 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey state tables (the newest state-level agency measure of home size).
The table below shows every state plus DC: the average home size across all housing units, how many homes that covers, and the total residential square footage. Sort it however you want.
Average home size by state: all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., ranked by average square feet per housing unit across the whole stock, apartments included (the newest state-level agency measure). New York and Nevada tie exactly; small gaps are within survey error. Click a header to sort.
Rank
State
Avg sq ft per home
Housing units (M)
Total sq ft (B)
1
Utah
2,158
1.04
2.24
2
Iowa
2,104
1.28
2.7
3
New Hampshire
2,102
0.54
1.13
4
Delaware
2,089
0.38
0.79
5
Wisconsin
2,067
2.39
4.94
6
South Dakota
2,056
0.35
0.71
7
Missouri
2,043
2.43
4.96
8
Michigan
2,030
3.92
7.95
9
Indiana
2,020
2.6
5.25
10
Connecticut
2,017
1.38
2.79
11
North Dakota
2,016
0.32
0.64
12
Ohio
2,013
4.74
9.54
13
Colorado
1,999
2.26
4.52
14
Minnesota
1,994
2.23
4.45
15
Pennsylvania
1,991
5.13
10.21
16
Maine
1,989
0.56
1.12
17
Maryland
1,987
2.28
4.53
18
Virginia
1,986
3.24
6.44
19
Idaho
1,978
0.66
1.3
20
Georgia
1,974
3.88
7.66
21
Kansas
1,955
1.13
2.2
22
Tennessee
1,947
2.66
5.17
23
Nebraska
1,930
0.77
1.48
24
Illinois
1,924
4.9
9.43
25
Kentucky
1,912
1.74
3.32
26
North Carolina
1,901
4.01
7.63
27
Vermont
1,897
0.26
0.49
28
Wyoming
1,893
0.23
0.43
29
West Virginia
1,891
0.7
1.32
30
Montana
1,876
0.43
0.81
31
New Jersey
1,872
3.39
6.35
32
Rhode Island
1,864
0.42
0.78
33
Massachusetts
1,853
2.71
5.03
34
Mississippi
1,850
1.08
2.01
35
Arkansas
1,791
1.14
2.05
36
South Carolina
1,770
1.97
3.49
37
Alabama
1,766
1.9
3.36
38
Alaska
1,761
0.26
0.45
39
Louisiana
1,743
1.73
3.01
40
Texas
1,734
10.26
17.78
41
Oklahoma
1,729
1.49
2.58
42
Arizona
1,712
2.68
4.58
43
Oregon
1,701
1.65
2.81
44
Washington
1,674
2.94
4.92
45
New Mexico
1,672
0.79
1.32
46
Florida
1,623
8.06
13.08
47
Nevada
1,614
1.14
1.84
48
New York
1,614
7.52
12.14
49
California
1,504
13.18
19.83
50
Hawaii
1,452
0.47
0.69
51
District of Columbia
1,185
0.32
0.38
–
USA
1,818
123.53
224.62
Source: Energy Information Administration, 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, state square-footage tables.
Where homes shrank the most
The Midwest gave back the most. Its median new home peaked at 2,400 square feet in 2014 and finished last year at 1,990, a 17.1 percent drop and the region’s first sub-2,000 reading since 2009. The South fell 14.3 percent from its 2015 peak of 2,517, and the West 13.1 percent from 2,453.
The Northeast is the odd region out. Its new homes peaked at 2,523 square feet in 2022, years after everyone else, and have slipped just 10.2 percent to 2,265, still the largest new builds in the country. Fewer, pricier, bigger: the Northeast builds so little that what does get built skews custom and large.
New-home medians by region: last year’s figure against each region’s own peak. The Midwest gave back the most; the Northeast peaked latest and slipped least.
Northeast2,265 now · peak 2,523 (2022) · −10.2%
South2,158 now · peak 2,517 (2015) · −14.3%
West2,131 now · peak 2,453 (2014) · −13.1%
Midwest1,990 now · peak 2,400 (2014) · −17.1%
Light bar = the region’s peak median · dark bar = the newest annual median.
Source: Census Bureau, Survey of Construction (completions), regional series.
Methodology: where these numbers come from
New-home sizes come from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction, the “Characteristics of New Housing” series: median and average square feet of floor area in new single-family houses completed, published annually from 1973 through 2024 for the nation and four regions, with quarterly completions through late 2025 via the Census series on FRED. NAHB’s quarterly size posts use the related starts data, so their numbers run a shade different from the completions series; we label each where used.
The state-level table uses the Energy Information Administration’s 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, the newest state-by-state measurement of home size any agency publishes: average square footage per housing unit, all occupied homes including apartments. The for-sale figure is Realtor.com’s monthly inventory median, published through FRED. Three sources, three universes, each labeled in place.
New-build trend: Census SOC completions, annual 1973–2024 + quarterly through Q3 2025
State averages: EIA RECS 2020, avg sq ft per housing unit (whole stock incl. apartments)
For-sale median: Realtor.com inventory series via FRED, monthly
Universe labels carried on every figure; starts vs completions never spliced
For what those homes cost and who owns them, our US housing statistics page covers the broader picture, and our average age of homes by state breakdown covers when they were built.
Bottom line
American homes really are shrinking, and the shrink is bigger than the headlines say: the 2024 median is the smallest in fifteen years, not thirteen. But zoom out and the correction looks modest. We’re giving back a third of a half-century of growth, in the regions where building still happens, while the homes people actually live in stay far bigger per person than anything our parents knew.
If you’re house hunting, calibrate to the right number. A new build near 2,146 square feet is typical, a listing near 1,842 is the middle of the for-sale market, and anything around 1,800 matches the average American home.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average size house in 2026?
The average house in 2026 is about 2,146 square feet if you mean new single-family homes, per the newest Census completions data. The median home listed for sale runs 1,842 square feet, and the average across all US homes, apartments included, is 1,818. The three numbers measure different sets of homes, which is why you see all of them cited.
What was the average size of a house in 1970?
In the early seventies, the median new single-family home was 1,525 square feet, with an average of 1,660, per the Census series that begins in 1973. That’s about 620 square feet less than today’s median new build. Households were also larger then, so space per person has grown even faster than the houses.
Has the average US house size doubled since the 1970s?
No. New homes grew 61.8 percent from 1973 to the 2015 peak, and after the recent shrink they stand 40.7 percent above the 1973 median. The doubling claim usually comes from comparing the biggest modern averages against the smallest postwar decades. Space per person has come closer to doubling, since households got smaller.
Is a 2000 square foot home considered small?
No, 2,000 square feet is close to the median new single-family home, which measured 2,146 square feet in the newest Census data. It’s also well above the 1,842-square-foot median of homes currently listed for sale. Whether it feels small depends mostly on household size and layout, not the national statistics.
Which states have the smallest homes?
DC has the smallest homes, averaging 1,185 square feet per housing unit, followed by Hawaii at 1,452 and California at 1,504, per the Energy Information Administration’s state survey. New York and Nevada come next. Dense cities, expensive land, and a large share of apartments drive all five.
Sources
US Census Bureau. “Characteristics of New Housing: Square Feet of Floor Area in New Single-Family Houses Completed (Survey of Construction).” 2026. www.census.gov/construction/chars/current.html
US Census Bureau via FRED. “New Privately Owned Housing Completions: Median Square Feet of Floor Area for One-Family Units (COMPSFLAM1FQ).” 2026. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/COMPSFLAM1FQ
Realtor.com via FRED. “Housing Inventory: Median Home Size in Square Feet in the United States (MEDSQUFEEUS).” 2026. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEDSQUFEEUS
Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.
He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.
If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.
