> In other words, even if developers built more two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments
I'm confused. The overwhelming majority of apartments in my state are two and three bedroom ones.
I'm confused. The overwhelming majority of apartments in my state are two and three bedroom ones.
4 bedrooms - less than 5%, 3 bedrooms - 10%, 2 bedrooms - 30%, 1 bedrooms - 40%, studios - 15%.
As a result, the larger units are not just more expensive due to square footage, but the pricing scales non-linearly per square foot because 3+ bedroom units are a rarity. Typically you'll see a 3BR have 50% more square footage than 2BR but cost 2x the price.
It's not uncommon for people who have their first kid in a 2BR to then buy a studio or 1BR in the same building for their kids to play / grandparents to stay over, rather than selling and upgrading to a 3BR.. as insanely inconvenient as that sounds, due to cost.
If you look at rental buildings the skew is far worse. There is a 500 unit rental building that opened near me 5 years ago with apparently no units larger than 2 bedroom. Another one with 325 units shows the same. And finally the most recent 605 unit building with, again, no units above 2 bedroom in size.
To add insult to injury, many rental building 2 bedroom units are really configured for people to split with a roommate rather than house a family.
So to have 3BR+ in the city you need to be wealthy enough to save up down payment money for ownership, and also have income to cover paying both a space and price-per-sq-ft premium.
The three most recent large apartment (not condo) projects in my area were 50% 2 bedroom units, 30% three bedroom, and the rest 4 bedroom. No one-bedroom units at all.
The takeaway I have from all of this is that this is something that varies quite a lot from place to place.
The bigger issue would be plumbing for bathrooms & kitchens.
And if you're curious about new construction, you can find it here https://www.census.gov/construction/chars/highlights.html
You'll find that in 2022 over half of new apartment units had 1 bedroom or less. I guess you live in a very different state that is not reflective of overall trends across the US.
Because I've researched it.
> Have you looked at statistics for housing stock in the US in general?
I wasn't talking about the US in general, I was talking specifically about my state. Housing situations vary wildly across the nation, though, so I shouldn't have been surprised that things are very different in my part of the nation than in others. Still, it did confuse me.
Now I'm less confused. What the article is talking about isn't really that applicable to my corner of the nation.