AND A TV AND A PHONE IN EVERY ROOM:

Nowhere to go but up: R.I.P., ranch house. A buildup of new two-stories is changing the landscape. (Judd Slivka, October 2, 2005, LA Times)

THE one-level ranch home, that stalwart of Western living, is being replaced by row after row of closely packed multistory dwellings.

Single-story architecture sits right at the confluence of two trends driving the home-building industry: consumer demand for bigger homes and the increasing price of open land.

The near-disappearance of the single-level style in new construction is a milestone in regional land use — a deviation from decades of building that emphasized one-story homes. And one that seems ironic as the large baby boomer population is aging and more likely to be seeking out places without stairs.

About 55% of all new single-family homes in the U.S. had two or more stories in 2004, up from 30% in 1978, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. [...]

"Square footage is most important for the buyers from the get-go," said Alma Dizon, a Tarbell Realtors agent in Riverside. "Everyone wants 2,000 square feet as a start, even first-time homeowners. Very few people will sacrifice square footage."

Consumers polled in 2003 were living in homes with a median 1,845 square feet, according to the National Assn. of Home Builders. What they wanted was 2,386 square feet. [...]

Home size has been expanding since the middle of the last century. In 1950, according to home builders' association statistics, the average new American home was 983 square feet. Fast forward to 2003 and the average newly built home was 2,330 square feet.

Let's set aside for the moment the question of whether it's actually true, as the Left and far Right insist, that we work harder than our parents did and we'll just accept that the modern couple works twice as hard. it would hardly be a surprise then that their house is twice as big, eh?

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 2, 2005 9:05 AM