NYC's shoebox apartments are actually getting bigger
Over the past decade, the average size of a newly constructed apartment in the US has shrunk by about the size of a twin bed.
Twenty-two square feet, specifically — that's the average 10-year shrinkage unearthed by RentCafe's study of 100 US cities with large rental markets.
The New York Times first reported the study, which singled out New York City — famously home to some minuscule apartments — as a rare site of square footage gains.
3 New York City is notorious for shoebox apartments, but new data shows improvement in elbow room.
Kristina Blokhin – stock.adobe.com
Americans have big preferences — big cars, big soft drinks and big refrigerators, to name a few. But over the years, Americans have found themselves in smaller digs. The average US apartment in 2024 reached 908 square feet, according to RentCafe.
Experts point to, in part, higher demand for studios and one-bedrooms among a growing unmarried, childless professional class. It's well understood that young people in exciting, happening cities would trade a spacious home for a prime location.
Cities like New York and San Francisco, however, saw some of the most significant rental square footage growth among the metros analyzed.
3 Square footage increased in New York City's three most populous boroughs, but one saw particularly roomy gains.
Getty Images
With an average of 702 square feet, the typical rental in Queens is nothing to write home about, but it's an improvement from 2015. Rentals in Queens County gained 39 square feet over the past 10 years, RentCafe found, as developers focused on increasing the share of two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Brooklyn saw a much more modest square footage upsize of 1%, or 6 square feet, since 2015. Kings County rentals currently reach an average of 708 square feet.
Manhattan apartments, along with Queens and Brooklyn, still rank among the smallest in the county nationwide, but at least there's a little extra room for a side table. Apartments in the borough grew by a modest 4 square feet over the past decade to a current average of 738 square feet.
The RentCafe study attributes the average growth to expanding one- and two-bedroom apartments, 'allowing Manhattanites just enough space for a small pet without needing to compromise on that mini fridge.'
3 New York City was one of few metro areas where apartments upsized since 2015.
Christopher Sadowski
New York City and San Francisco — where apartments gained 59 square feet — are exceptions to the rule. Apartment sizes decreased in a majority of the large metros studied, from Chicago to Orlando.
The biggest apartments in the country are concentrated far from New York, in the South. Rentals in Tallahassee and Gainesville, Florida, average 1,120 square feet, according to RentCafe. But apartments in Arlington, Texas saw the greatest loss of square footage of any city studied. Arlington rentals, on average, lost 215 square feet — nearly the size of the average American dorm room.
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