h-town's big houses
Houston boasts the biggest homes in America, new study finds
As the old saying goes, a man’s home is his castle. Nowhere is that more fitting than in Houston, as a new study reveals that the Bayou City boasts the biggest houses in America.
Houston tops a national list compiled by Lending Tree, which surveyed the 45 largest cities in America and ranked them by median single-family house size.
To determine which cities have the largest homes, researchers pulled the latest data from Lending Tree’s property value database and broke down the findings by median home size, median home value, and price per square foot.
No. 1 Houston clocks in with a median home size of 1,952 square feet, a median home value of $196,000, and an affordable cost per square foot of $100. Atlanta follows at No. 2, with Washington, D.C., at No. 3.
Proving that everything is bigger in Texas, Dallas appears at No. 4, and Austin follows at No. 5. In Dallas, the median home size is 1,862 square feet. The median value is slightly higher than Houston, at $217,000, and the cost per square foot is $117. Austin homes measure a median 1,861 square foot, boast a median home value of $283,000, and a pricier cost of $152 per square foot.
Still, Texas housing is considerably more affordable than elsewhere in the U.S. For some comparison (and bang-for-your-buck bragging rights), consider San Jose, California, which comes in at No. 17. The median home size there is 1,711 square feet, with a median value of $1,185,000, and cost per square foot of $693.
In analyzing the Lone Star State, the study notes that besides having a lot of space, Texas has been adding new residents at a steady pace, with the nation’s largest annual population growth between 2010 and 2016. “More new homes means larger homes,” says Lending Tree’s chief economist Tendayi Kapfidze.
The most diminutive abodes are in Detroit. The Lending Tree report adds that cities with older housing stock, such as Detroit, tend to have smaller houses.
