Apartment Sizes Are Shrinking
Apartments are biggest in Tallahassee -- and some of the other data may surprise you.
The average apartment size was 887 square feet in 2022 — a whole 54 square feet less than a decade ago and 30 square feet less than in 2021 — according to a new analysis of Yardi Matrix data by RentCafe.
“Notably, last year’s decrease comes after the two pandemic years, 2020 and 2021, when the average size of new apartments actually increased. Once again, this confirmed the developers’ quick response to the need for more space during the pandemic, as they adjusted floorplans in order to accommodate large enough configurations to fit a home office,” RentCafe analyst Adina Dragos writes. “Yet, 2022 presented a different story: With one of the highest levels of construction in half a century, the year was marked by the need for more housing all across the country. As such, more studios and one-bedroom apartments were finished in 2022 than ever before.”
Geography matters, of course: in the South, renters had an extra 106 square feet compared to the national average last year, while those in the Pacific Northwest had the least amount of space at 776 square feet — 111 less than the average. In California, renters have an average of 876 square feet.
Conversely, apartments in Tallahassee, Fla., are largest in the country at 1182 square feet. Over the past decade, the apartment size in the Florida city has increased by 16.2% or 191 square feet — and they’re going to get even bigger. The size of apartments under construction is estimated to reach 1,408 square feet — an extra 226 square feet of extra space for renters over current numbers.
Tallahassee is followed by Gainesville, Mobile, Knoxville, and Marietta, Ga., in the list of metros with the largest apartment size. It also tops RentCafe’s list of cities with the largest apartments under construction, followed by Ocala, Louisville, Lake Worth, Fla., and Clarksville, Tenn.
Seattle apartments are also getting smaller, at 659 square feet, while Manhattan apartments are getting larger, with the average apartment size coming in at 740 square feet.