Future home sizes? Depends who you ask

A man’s home is his castle. Or, if architects are right, it’s his slightly smaller castle.

Research from the Farnsworth Group — “Future of Remodeling: Current & future trends seen by residential architects and remodelers” — shows architects are in near agreement.

Three-quarters of the architects in the survey said that home sizes will get smaller — 62% say slightly smaller, 13% say significantly so. Many architects point to the relative costs of the larger home to be a main driver of the anticipated trend. Also, the size of the American nuclear family has been declining for years, and it makes sense for homes to follow suit, they say.

However, predictions of smaller homes have been made before, with little impact on reality. Median single-family home size in 2012 was 2,036 sq. ft., a record high.

In-depth one–on-one interviews with a small group of remodelers found home sizes on the upswing — more than half expect bigger homes on the horizon, while 1/4 think smaller. Says one contractor in the Farnsworth study: “Everyone wants to live in a big house. This is America.”