RentCafe: New Apartment Sizes Are Rebounding

(Image courtesy of RentCafe; Breakout image courtesy of Jovydas Dobilas/pexels.com)

RentCafe, Santa Barbara, Calif., found the average new U.S. apartment size increased by 27 square feet in 2023, up to 916 square feet.

That sizing jump was driven by the increase in new two- and three-bedroom units.

The average size of apartments had fallen in 2022 to 889 square feet, coinciding with an increase in smaller units opening their doors.

And, new average apartment sizes still hover below the 10-year high of an average 930 square feet hit in 2018.

RentCafe noted that as a general observation, bigger apartments (largely two- and three-bedroom units) are getting larger, and studios and one-bedrooms are getting smaller.

The average size of a single-family home for rent increased to 1,437 square feet, up 41 square feet from 2022.

RentCafe noted that three-bedroom apartments have started to become closer in size to single-family homes for rent. Both types are close in terms of price.

The size of a build-to-rent house in 2023 reached over 1,400 square feet, with an average rent of $2,096; an average three-bedroom apartment was around 1,350 square feet and $2,160 in monthly rent.

RentCafe examined 100 locations, finding Gainesville, Fla., and Tallahassee, Fla., Baton Rouge, La., Knoxville, Tenn., and Marietta, Ga., saw the biggest new units.

Seattle, Portland, Ore., Queens, N.Y., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Detroit had the smallest new units.

However some major cities–including Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Manhattan–are seeing the average size of their rentals edge up.