The trend in increasing number of excess
bedrooms is driven by both declining household sizes and by an
increase in the number of bedrooms per home
SANTA
CLARA, Calif., Dec. 18,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Although your home might feel
tight this holiday season, nationally, the number of extra
bedrooms, defined as a bedroom that is in excess of the number of
persons in the home, plus one to account for an office, has reached
the highest levels in Census record history, according to a new
report from Realtor.com® released today.
In 2023, the number of extra bedrooms in the U.S. reached 31.9
million, up from 31.3 million the year prior and over four times
the 7 million extra bedrooms the country had back in 1980.
Additionally, taking into account that the U.S. housing stock is as
large as it has ever been, the analysis found the share of
all bedrooms that could be considered an "extra" bedroom has also
reached a record high of 8.8%. This is up from the 8.7% in the year
prior and over twice the 3.5% rate in 1980. The record–high number
and share of excess bedrooms in the U.S. is driven by both an
increase in the number of bedrooms per home and a decline in the
number of persons per household.
"During the holidays we often feel the need for more room,
especially for guests; however, we are in a golden age of extra
bedrooms," said Danielle Hale, chief
economist, Realtor.com®. "Since the 1980s we have seen
the average number of bedrooms per home increase, and maybe more
importantly, the number of persons per household has declined,
creating an environment where we see both the largest number of
extra bedrooms and the largest share of extra bedrooms, even with
Americans using spare rooms as offices."
Are houses getting bigger? Not exactly. While there has
been an increase in the average number of bedrooms per home over
the past 50 years, growing from an average of 2.5 rooms in 1970 to
2.8 rooms in 2023, there has been no change over the past 10 years
when the average was also 2.8 rooms per home in 2013. The more
significant factor is a declining number of persons per household,
falling from a high of 3.1 persons per household in 1970 to a
record low of 2.5 persons per household in 2023.
Extra bedrooms are more common in the Mountain West and
South. The trend of excess bedrooms is most pronounced in the
Mountain West and South, where land is plentiful and homes are
often built with more square footage and larger floor plans. Homes
in densely populated urban areas where land is scarcer and more
costly tend to have fewer extra bedrooms, reflecting the higher
demand for space-efficient living and affordability.
The 10 markets with the highest share of total bedrooms that
could be considered excess are:
- Ogden, Utah (12.2%)
- Colorado Springs, Colo.
(12.1%)
- Salt Lake City, Utah
(12%)
- Memphis, Tenn. (11.8%)
- Atlanta, G.A. (11.6%)
- Cleveland, Ohio (11.3%)
- Wichita, Kansas (11.3%)
- Columbia, S.C. (10.8%)
- Charleston, S.C. (10.7%)
- Jackson, Miss. (10.7%)
The 10 markets with the lowest share of total bedrooms that
could be considered excess are:
- Miami, Fla. (5.9%)
- Sarasota, Fla. (6.4%)
- New York, N.Y. (6.5%)
- Los Angeles, Calif.
(6.6%)
- New Haven, Conn. (6.7%)
- Worcester, Mass (6.9%)
- Stockton, Calif. (6.9%)
- Bakersfield, Calif (7%)
- Urban Honolulu, Hawaii
(7%)
- Providence, R.I (7.1%)
To read the full report and learn more:
www.realtor.com/research/december-guest-rooms-2025/
Methodology
For this analysis, we gathered data on
household inhabitants and bedrooms from the US American Community
Survey (ACS) nationally and for the 100 largest metro areas between
1970 and 2023. From there, we calculated the number of available
bedrooms as the (total number of bedrooms) – (the number of
household members) – 1. We subtract 1 additional bedroom to account
for various uses, such as an office or storage space. We compared
the resulting count of homes with spare bedrooms to the total
number of owner-occupied households within the metro to come up
with our metric for the share of homes with unoccupied bedrooms. We
estimated home values using the self-reported value of
owner-occupiers in the ACS.
About Realtor.com®
Realtor.com®
is an open real estate marketplace built for everyone.
Realtor.com® pioneered the world of digital real estate
more than 25 years ago. Today, through its website and mobile apps,
Realtor.com® is a trusted guide for consumers,
empowering more people to find their way home by breaking down
barriers, helping them make the right connections, and creating
confidence through expert insights and guidance. For professionals,
Realtor.com® is a trusted partner for business growth,
offering consumer connections and branding solutions that help them
succeed in today's on-demand world. Realtor.com® is
operated by News Corp [Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV]
subsidiary Move, Inc. For more information, visit
Realtor.com®.
Media contact: Mallory
Micetich, press@realtor.com
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SOURCE Realtor.com