The housing crisis in the U.S. has many layers, but one often overlooked aspect is the sheer size of modern homes. While skyrocketing costs dominate the conversation, the issue of square footage per person is equally pressing. Over the past few generations, the average size of homes has ballooned, nearly quadrupling in size, even as household sizes have steadily declined.
At HUTS, we believe that the conversation about appropriate housing starts with sizing homes for the people who live in them. That’s why The Starter Home aims to meet the needs of today’s households by focusing on thoughtful, appropriately scaled designs—homes that harken back to an era when homes were built for people, not just square footage.
The Trend of Oversized Homes
Let’s take a brief look at how things have changed over the decades. In the 1950s, the average new home was just 983 square feet, housing about 3.37 people. That’s 292 square feet per person. By the 1960s, homes grew to 1,200 square feet, and the average household size shrank slightly to 3.33, resulting in 360 square feet per person. This was an era when homes were designed to maximize efficiency, with layouts often featuring 2.5 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms.
Fast-forward to today, and we find a much different story. The average newly built home in the 2010s reached a massive 2,392 square feet, with just 2.59 people living inside. That’s a staggering 924 square feet per person—over double the space each person had in the 1960s.
Why This Matters for Housing Affordability
This trend towards larger homes benefits developers who maximize profits by building bigger houses but does little to address the real needs of homeowners. Large homes come with higher costs—both in construction and in upkeep. They're expensive to heat, cool, and furnish. They require more land, driving up property prices and exacerbating the housing crisis.
At HUTS, we believe that building more square footage isn’t the solution. Instead, we advocate for appropriately-sized homes—homes that are both affordable and sustainable, while still providing enough space for modern living.
The HUTS Approach: Returning to 1960s Standards
HUTS Starter Homes are designed to echo the thoughtful proportions of the 1960s. Our homes provide around 400 square feet per person, a ratio that feels both comfortable and efficient. By scaling homes to align with this historically balanced standard, we create spaces that are more affordable, easier to maintain, and kinder to the environment.
Unlike the sprawling tract homes of today, HUTS designs every square foot to serve a purpose. We focus on multi-purpose rooms, intelligent layouts, and flexible living spaces that adapt to a family’s needs. Our homes are neither excessive nor constrained, but designed to offer the perfect balance of form and function.
The Benefits of Appropriately-Sized Starter Homes
By aligning our homes with a more reasonable square footage per person, HUTS creates starter homes that are:
- Affordable: Smaller homes naturally cost less to build and maintain, making them accessible to more people.
- Sustainable: With less space to heat and cool, these homes are more energy-efficient and eco-friendly.
- Flexible: Our designs focus on intelligent use of space, allowing for flexibility in how rooms are used, meeting the evolving needs of homeowners.
- Quality-Driven: With less wasted space, HUTS can focus on building higher-quality homes, using better materials and thoughtful craftsmanship.
Our vision for the Future
With The Starter Home we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel—we’re simply returning to a proven approach to home design that prioritizes people over square footage. We believe the future of housing should be about creating appropriately-sized, well-designed homes that meet the needs of modern families without the unnecessary excess that has become the norm.
The Starter Home offers a solution to the housing crisis by addressing both affordability and sustainability in a single, intelligently designed package. By embracing the square footage per person ratios of the 1960s, we’re not just building houses—we’re building homes that fit the way people live today.
In a world where homes have grown too big and too expensive, HUTS is dedicated to bringing things back into balance, one thoughtfully designed starter home at a time.
