Big Homes Are Back, But With A Twist!

Mar 28, 2024 | Published by Leave your thoughts

Downsize, downsize and downsize. If you’ve been looking at home sales in the last few years, you would think the word “downsize” became a permanent part of the real estate lingo! Thankfully, that’s not entirely true. Big homes are back!

While many people were thinking about smaller homes, a whole other generation of home buyers were thinking that bigger is better. The big homes that are making a comeback come with a twist! Can you guess what it is?

Before we reveal what the new trends in big home sales are, here are some interesting tidbits about home sizes across the states:

  • Six of the 10 states with the biggest homes are in the West, based on the median square footage of homes for sale on Realtor.com.
  • The six Western states among the top 10 with the largest homes are: Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington.
  • Three of the states are in the South: Texas, Georgia and Maryland.
  • One Midwest state is on the top 10 list: South Dakota.

So, what is happening with the big home market?

Builders and designers all over the industry are coming in with reports stating that buyers are looking for more space. The interesting thing about this revelation is that the requirements for space no longer include fancy dining rooms or formal sitting rooms like in days past.

This new generation of homeowners found work before the economic slump, and they have been saving for about 10+ years while living in small city apartments. Now, they’re ready to expand their growing families and live in the homes of their dreams.

Appraisers need to be ready for the new generation of home owners who want big homes, but with different amenities.

The New Big Home

New buyers want space to work from home, build collaborative art studios, music studios, plant gardens, storage space, big airy bedrooms and they want the flexibility to change rooms as needed– this doesn’t sound so out of the norm, right?

What else do these new homeowners want to do with their space? They want open floor plans and energy efficiency.

Half walls and vertical gardens or visual dividers allow family members and guests to interact even if they are in different rooms. The open floor plan requires a lot of space, thus the reintroduction of bigger homes.

We’ll talk about open floor plans pros and cons from an appraiser’s perspective in another post, but for now we’ll focus on the market. So, are appraisers going to value homes more if they’re a hybrid of homestead and chic, as requested by the new big home buyers? That still depends on the rest of the factors like the neighborhood, comp sales in the neighboring homes and each particular market.

Buyers, sellers and appraisers, let us know: Have you noticed this big home trend? Do you think big homes are back? We certainly do. Just make sure you keep buyers away from that formal dining room!

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This post was written by Joseph Castaneda

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