RentCafe’s annual report on apartment living shows some communities are seeing apartment square footage increase for the first time in years. But maybe not yours.
Tallahassee, Fla.; Gainesville, Fla.; Baton Rouge, La.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Marietta, Ga., topped the list of cities with the largest apartments. If you live in Tallahassee, you’re getting an average new apartment size of 1,130 square feet.
The average new apartment size across the country is now 908 square feet—a jump from past years—but in many places, that number is much lower.
Seattle holds the top spot for the smallest apartments in the United States: 649 square feet. Portland, Ore.; Queens, N.Y.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and San Francisco round out the top five cities with the smallest new apartments.
Honorable mention to San Francisco—those small apartments in San Francisco (716 square feet on average) are actually seeing an increase in size over the last ten years—up eight percent in square footage, or 59 square feet more for your money than a decade ago. As RentCafe puts it, “it’s clear that developers are answering to the demand for more space.”
Los Angeles, where KTLA is located, has an average new apartment size of 789 square feet. Not amazing. But there are 15 other cities with smaller apartment sizes.
KTLA consumer reported David Lazarus breaks down the data:
“Not a huge surprise here. Although high home prices have kept many would-be buyers on the sidelines, and thus in rental units, there’s been a glut of vacant apartments in some markets after a flurry of construction in recent years. Larger spaces being made available reflect that.”
Lazarus calls the smaller apartments in hotter markets a sign of “shrinkage.”
“What’s disheartening is that apartments in hot housing markets have been trending smaller as developers and landlords seek to pack more renters into tinier spaces. New York has long been notorious for this, and L.A. has similarly experienced shrinkage because of the desire to live in closer-to-work neighborhoods.”
Overall, which cities are seeing the biggest downward swing in apartment size? Arlington, Texas; Birmingham, Ala.; Detroit; Memphis, Tenn.; and Fort Myers, Fla. In Arlington, new apartment units are a whopping 215 square feet smaller than a decade ago. RentCafe says it’s a sign that developers are responding to demand for one-bedroom units.
