Dallas Real Estate News

On an average day, I receive 20 to 50 real estate related emails.  I get them from agents trying to sell a property, I get them from other real estate companies telling me I should come work for them, I receive them from vendors trying to sell me something, and occasionally I get one that actually provides me with some useful, or at least interesting, information. 

Yesterday I received an update from Trulia (a mega real estate website), and the subject line got my attention right away, "Is the McMansion Era Over?"  Of course, I was interested in that.  I live in two separate real estate worlds as I shuttle between Plano/Allen areas and White Rock Lake.  I live among a few thousand modest 1950's-built bungalows.  My neighbor on one side has a whopping 972 square feet, and my neighbor on the other side (with a sun room addition) probably has an expansive 1400 square feet of space.  Mine is the behemoth with 1500+ square feet and the guest house/office, but for the most part, these are fairly typical sizes of the homes in my neighborhood.

We don't have media rooms, few of us have separate laundry rooms or even walk-in closets, but the lake being within walking distance, the multiple sources of public transportation, Northpark Mall within a 5 to 10 minute drive with virtually no traffic, and the trees... oh, the glorious trees, not to mention the neighbors themselves, make for a lifestyle that more than compensates for the smaller sizes of our homes.  Besides, we don't have as much to paint, cool, heat, repair or pay for in taxes and insurance. 

Recently I was working on the "island" to the north (the community shall remain unnamed), where a house isn't considered legitimate unless it's a minimum of 4000 square feet, complete with 3-car garage, separate study, multiple living areas, media room and, of course, every single bedroom must have an en suite bath.  Over the years, I have certainly made my fair share of commissions selling "the big houses", but living in one is not something I have any interest in whatsoever.

Apparently, I am not alone.  And in spite of the fact that the average American home swelled from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,349 square feet in 2004, (a whopping 140% increase in size), fewer than 9% of Americans have ever believed that a house 3200 square feet or larger was the ideal size.  Here's the breakdown of "ideal" home sizes decade by decade:

    1950's - 983 sf, 1960's - 1,200 sf, 1970's - 1,400 sf, 1980's - 1,710 sf, 1990's - 2,120, 2000's - 2,330 sf, 2010's - ??  Recent reports from the National Association of Homebuilders says that 9 out of 10 builders are building or planning to build smaller homes, and that a size closer to 2100 sf is the ideal these days. 

Here is the breakdown of the current Americans' Ideal Home Size today: