Apartment sizes are getting smaller in the US. Research from RCLCO Real Estate Advisors tracked trends in apartment sizes, and found that apartments today are 100 square feet smaller than those built in the 2000s, falling from an average of 1,031 square feet for apartments built from 2000 to 2009 to 931 square feet for apartments built from 2015 to 2019. That is a 9.7% reduction in average apartment size.

Apartment sizes decline most rapidly from 2010 to 2014, when the average apartment size decreased more than 70 square feet or 7.6% to 952 square feet. Apartment sizes then decreased another 2.2% from 2015 to 2019.

The decrease in apartment size is a national trend, and it doesn't seem to be more pronounced in specific metros, market cost or apartment unit types. In coastal markets, this trend emerged more recently. In both east and west coastal regions, apartments sizes decreased 4% and 5% in the last five years compared to apartments built from 2010 to 2014. In the Midwest and Southern markets, on the other hand, apartment sizes decreased the most in the period from 2010 to 2014, and leveled off in the last five years.

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.