The U.S. Census Bureau has just
released the 2012 version of its report on Characteristics of New
Housing. The report is composed of dozens of individual
spreadsheets, available in both Excel and PDF format covers pretty
much everything you ever wanted to know about new single and multifamily
buildings and units completed and, in some instances, sold in 2012.
The data goes back
to 1973 so readers can make comparisons across the years for any
number of housing characteristics. For example, of the 483,000
single family homes completed in 2012, 432,000 had air-conditioning
(89 percent). However, of the 940,000 homes completed in 1974 only
451,000 or 48 percent were air conditioned.
Single family home data includes
information on the median and mean square footage of the structure
(the average size was 1,755 sf in 1978, 2,505 in 2012) and
configuration of new homes (63,000 had two or fewer bedrooms and
198,000 had four bedrooms or more,) interior and exterior building
materials, construction type (142,000 had a full or partial basement,
78,000 had a crawl space, and 263,000 were built on a slab), and
types of heating system, exterior features, and parking facilities.
Data is broken out by regions (30
percent of homes built in the South exceed 3,000 square feet, the
others regions lag far behind) and by locations inside and outside of
metropolitan areas. Some data is also given by type of financing
used. The largest houses on average were conventionally financed,
the smallest were all cash purchases or FHA insured.
Some other facts about 483,000 single
family homes constructed in 2012:
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34,000 had
one and one-half bathrooms or less, whereas 145,000 homes had three
or more bathrooms.
-
266,000
were of two or more stories.
-
278,000 had
a warm-air furnace and 183,000 had a heat pump as the primary
heating system.
-
285,000
heating systems were powered by gas and 189,000 were powered by
electricity.
-
There were
368,000 new single-family homes sold in 2012.
-
The average
sales price was $292,200 or $86.30 per square foot. The highest
price was in the Northeast at an average psf price of $122.60.
-
There were
82,000 contractor built homes started in 2012.
Some of the data on multi-family construction in the reports:
-
There were 245,000 multi-family units started in 2012 17,000
of which were age-restricted
-
There were 166,000 multifamily units completed during the
year, 16,000 of which were age restricted.
-
Of units completed, 60,000 had one bedroom and 28,000 had
three or more; 79,000 had two or more bathrooms
-
The average square footage of units built for sale was 1,626
-
There were 9,000 multi-family buildings completed in 2012,
8,000 of which were low-rise with three or fewer floors.
The tables can be
downloaded at
http://www.census.gov/construction/chars/highlights.html