New construction inventory has reached its highest point since the Great Recession, with the number of new single-family homes rising 7.7 percent between 2016 and 2017 to 795,000 units, according to the Census Bureau’s
2017 Characteristics of New Housing report. “It’s good that there’s more construction, but there’s still plenty of room for more building,” says realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “Builders are obviously catering more toward wealthier buyers, but we know that there’s plenty of housing demand on the more affordable end.”
The report reveals some common characteristics of the homes being built today, including increased size. The median square footage of new homes is up slightly from 2,422 to 2,426. These larger new homes tend to be pricier than existing homes. The median price of a new home was $312,400 in April compared to $257,900 for an existing home—a 21.1 percent difference. Other characteristics include:
- Forty-five percent of brand-new homes have three bedrooms, while 46 percent have four bedrooms.
- About 37 percent have three or more bathrooms, while 29 percent have 2.5 bathrooms and 31 percent have two bathrooms.
- Sixty-five percent have two-car garages.
- About a quarter have full or partial basements.
- About 487,000 were under homeowners associations last year.
- The majority of new construction is in the suburbs or exurbs.
“Construction is slowly shifting back from the core of metro areas to the outer suburbs because that’s where your ‘normal’ buyers look for houses,” Issi Romem, chief economist at BuildZoom, told realtor.com®. “They’re going to be larger than the homes you’ll find in the center of town.”
Source: “What Buyers Need to Know About the Latest Crop of Brand-New Homes,” realtor.com® (June 1, 2018)
