Your Dream Home Needn’t Be 2,000 Square Feet: Erin Lowry

Suburban dwellers might finally be embracing what those of us in cities have known for a long time: You don’t need a lot of square footage to have a comfortable living environment.

After decades of ever-swelling footprints, the size of Americans’ newly built homes has begun to shrink, as high mortgage rates and increased building costs nudge both developers and buyers to look for ways to trim expenses. The median single-family home completed in 2022 was 2,299 square feet, down from 2,467 in 2015.

I understand the frustration about more homes being squeezed in per neighborhood if you dreamed of having ...