Tiny homes are being built across the country, and novel approaches to living small are being explored around the globe. For much of the past decade, the average size of a newly built rental apartment in the United States had also been shrinking. But recently the trend reversed. In 2023, the average size of new rentals increased by 27 square feet, to 916 from 889, according to a study by RentCafe.
It’s hard to buy a single-family home these days, so it follows that larger rental units are in demand. Since 2014, as studios and one-bedrooms generally got smaller, two- and three-bedroom rentals trended bigger. At 1,347 square feet, three-bedrooms are now 19 square feet larger than they were in 2014. Meanwhile, the average new two-bedroom grew to 1,099 square feet in 2023 after shrinking considerably in 2022.
The largest new apartments tend to be in the South. Gainesville, Fla., led with an average of 1,173 square feet, representing a 19.7 percent increase over 10 years. Next was Tallahassee, Fla., where apartments grew to 1,159 square feet, a 15.4 percent increase. Seattle had the smallest new apartment sizes — 661 square feet, down by 3.6 percent — followed by Portland, Ore., at 685 square feet, down 7.3 percent.
As for coastal hubs, Manhattan, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco all saw their average rental unit grow in the past 10 years. Manhattan, with a 16-square-foot increase, was the only New York borough in the top 20 for apartment growth. (Brooklyn and Queens had larger average sizes, but they’ve shrunk over the past 10 years). That said, the average in all three boroughs — which were considered separate markets for the purpose of the study — was less than 750 square feet.