Real estate has gone through some tremendous changes
in the last 40 years. House & Garden magazine surveyed and
researched some eye-opening facts that mirror our changing lifestyles.
The research showed that eight areas have seen
significant changes over the years:
1) Size: Our homes are much larger than our
parents’ homes. “...The average single-family home grew from 1,695
square feet to 2,349”, states House & Garden. Especially
interesting is that even though our families are smaller in size
(dropping from 3.1 people to 2.6), a “quarter of homes built in 1974 had
four or more bedrooms; more than a third do today”.
Flex Space: Our homes today, “include a
first-level room that can be used variously as an in-law’s suite, a
crafts room, or a media room. Increasingly, these flex rooms do double
duty...On the second level, flex space gets a luxury spin. Usually
connected to the master suite, the rooms provide a place for a home
massage, a manicure, or hairstyling.
Kitchen:
Even though our homes have gotten
larger, the kitchen floor space percentage hasn’t increased markedly.
“...a kitchen of the early 1970s took up about 150 square fee-10 percent
of the house-today’s kitchen, at 280, is nearly double the size but
still only 12 percent of the house.” Appliance sizes, though, has
increased.
Technology:
“Forty-three percent of starter
homes built this year will contain high-speed wiring that allows
homeowners to network their home computers, play movies in multiple
rooms, and have sophisticated phone systems”. Flat screen and
high-definition TVs will be the centerpiece of the “media rooms”,
surround-sound audio, TiVo and even room-darkening window treatments to
match!
Ceilings:
The average ceiling height in the 1970s
was 7 feet 9 feet inches. Today a standard ceiling on the first floor is
9 feet and 8 feet on the second level.
Living and Dining:
This is where the biggest
changes have occurred. “Occupying 9 percent of the house, the living
room is rapidly diminishing, often disappearing altogether. In 2004,
more than a third of buyers of single-family homes said they would
forego a proper living room. The great room trend continues to increase.
The dining room has shrunken as well, “to a barely functional 10 by 12
feet today”.
Bedrooms:
Bedrooms have gotten a great deal
larger over the years. “From the 1930s to the ’60s, homes traditionally
had 9-by-10 foot bedrooms. By the ‘70s and ’80s, people had begun
spending more time in their bedrooms, doing homework, watching TV,
talking on the phone, having friends sleep over. Today a bedroom smaller
that 11 by 11 feet is rare, and 12 by 12 feet has become standard.”
Along with the larger bedrooms came the larger bed!
Bathrooms:
“Only in the late ’70s did the average
master bath gain a full tub. A mere 20 percent of homes built then had
two and a half bathrooms. Today that figure is up to 57 percent, and of
those homes, one-quarter have at least three full baths.
