Three-Bedroom Homes Reach Highest Market Share Since 2011
Three-bedroom homes made up 47% of all single-family homes built in 2024, their largest share of new home starts since 2011. All other bedroom number categories fell from 2023.
Three-bedroom homes have long been the most popular model for new homes. But four-bedroom homes gained significant market share in the post-recession and post-Covid building markets. With affordability being a primary driver in the market now, three-bedroom homes are gaining market share.
The share for four-bedroom homes declined for the third consecutive year but remained well above the shares for two-bedroom or fewer and five-bedroom or more homes. Four-bedroom homes fell the most from a 33.1% to 32.4% share, and the share of two-bedroom homes or fewer remained greater than that of homes with five bedrooms or more.
Regionally, the share of new single-family homes with four or more bedrooms displays geographic variation. The share ranged from a low of 22.2% in New England to a high of 46.7% in the West South Central division.
The number of bedrooms in new homes varies depending on the purpose of construction (built-for-sale, contractor-built, owner-built, built-for-rent). Most of this variation comes from the two-bedroom or less homes and four-bedroom homes.
For example, the share of new single-family homes with two bedrooms or fewer ranges from 5.6% of homes built-for-sale to 37.8% of homes built-for-rent. Meanwhile, three-bedroom homes and five-bedroom or more homes showed relatively little change across purpose of construction. Five-bedroom or more homes held the smallest share of starts across purpose of construction for all types except for built-for-sale homes.
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