There is an upward trend in the average size of floor area in new single-family homes. In 1975, a new home had an average floor area of about 1,660 square feet. By 2017, this figure had increased by about 1,000 square feet. The number of single family building permits in the United States has fluctuated considerably since 2000. Between 2005 and 2009, the number of building permits for single family homes decreased fourfold, and amounted to about 817 thousand permits in 2017. In that year, the average construction costs for a single-family home in the U.S. was 237,760 U.S. dollars.
The average sales price of existing single-family homes in the United States has increased from about 181.11 thousand dollars in 2011 to 248.8 thousand dollars in 2017. New single-family homes are substantially more expensive, at around 323.1 thousand U.S. dollars on average in 2017. As of the last couple years, the most expensive region to buy an existing house is the Western United States, while the South and Midwest are the two least expensive regions. For new houses, the Northeast is the most expensive region.
Outdoor features such as porches, patios, and decks are a popular addition to new single family homes in the United States. In 2017, about 241,000 new houses came with a patio and porch, making it the leading outdoor feature in the United States. Only about 67,000 new homes were built with no outdoor features at all in the United States in that year.
