Is there data on US housing sizes for all housing?

August 6, 2018 11:24 AM

All of the data I can find on US housing sizes are for newly-built single-family homes only (for example, this census data). Are there any data series showing housing size (especially over time) for all housing types, including apartments and older houses?

The new-built single-family data show a clear trend toward bigger homes, but I would like to know if that trend holds across other housing types. I can't find data to illuminate this question. Does it exist?

posted by enn to Grab Bag (3 answers total)

The American Housing Survey has a lot of housing data, including number of rooms, and it looks like the American Fact Finder also includes 2011 and 2013 Housing Survey data tables that have at least "number of rooms" information, though it does not appear to be broken out by structure type. There may not be a lot of historical data though, and it might be difficult to cross-tab and show something like "average square footage increased 10% for detached homes between 2011 and 2015, and 8% for attached dwellings".
posted by Kpele at 11:44 AM on August 6, 2018

If you're willing to confine your query to smaller areas, city or county tax assessment offices will have info on the square footage of each building in addition to the date built. The data may or may not be in accessible format, though.
posted by AFABulous at 12:04 PM on August 6, 2018

Best answer: Here's some info on apartment sizes over time. It notes the data source as "Yardi Matrix, an apartment market intelligence source."

For existing homes (not just newly built), see table A-9 in this American Housing Survey report, which has info for every other year from 1985-2005. Via the census links Kpele posted you can probably get the same data post-2005. (Note the line labeled "median" which is the median square footage for existing houses in those years.)
posted by beagle at 5:37 PM on August 6, 2018