Almost Everything You Wanted To Know About Housing Back to 1973

The U.S. Census Bureau has justrnreleased the 2012 version of its report on Characteristics of NewrnHousing. The report is composed of dozens of individualrnspreadsheets, available in both Excel and PDF format covers prettyrnmuch everything you ever wanted to know about new single and multifamilyrnbuildings and units completed and, in some instances, sold in 2012. </p

The data goes backrnto 1973 so readers can make comparisons across the years for anyrnnumber of housing characteristics. For example, of the 483,000rnsingle family homes completed in 2012, 432,000 had air-conditioningrn(89 percent). However, of the 940,000 homes completed in 1974 onlyrn451,000 or 48 percent were air conditioned. </p

Single family home data includesrninformation on the median and mean square footage of the structurern(the average size was 1,755 sf in 1978, 2,505 in 2012) andrnconfiguration of new homes (63,000 had two or fewer bedrooms andrn198,000 had four bedrooms or more,) interior and exterior buildingrnmaterials, construction type (142,000 had a full or partial basement,rn78,000 had a crawl space, and 263,000 were built on a slab), andrntypes of heating system, exterior features, and parking facilities.</p

Data is broken out by regions (30rnpercent of homes built in the South exceed 3,000 square feet, thernothers regions lag far behind) and by locations inside and outside ofrnmetropolitan areas. Some data is also given by type of financingrnused. The largest houses on average were conventionally financed,rnthe smallest were all cash purchases or FHA insured.</p

Some other facts about 483,000 singlernfamily homes constructed in 2012:</p<ul<li

34,000 hadrnone and one-half bathrooms or less, whereas 145,000 homes had threernor more bathrooms. </p</li<li

266,000rnwere of two or more stories. </p</li<li

278,000 hadrna warm-air furnace and 183,000 had a heat pump as the primaryrnheating system. </p</li<li

285,000rnheating systems were powered by gas and 189,000 were powered byrnelectricity. </p</li<li

There werern368,000 new single-family homes sold in 2012. </p</li<li

The averagernsales price was $292,200 or $86.30 per square foot. The highestrnprice was in the Northeast at an average psf price of $122.60.</p</li<li

There werern82,000 contractor built homes started in 2012. </p</li</ul

Some of the data on multi-family construction in the reports: </p<ul<li

There were 245,000 multi-family units started in 2012 17,000rnof which were age-restricted</p</li<li

There were 166,000 multifamily units completed during thernyear, 16,000 of which were age restricted.</p</li<li

Of units completed, 60,000 had one bedroom and 28,000 hadrnthree or more; 79,000 had two or more bathrooms</p</li<li

The average square footage of units built for sale was 1,626</p</li<li

There were 9,000 multi-family buildings completed in 2012,rn8,000 of which were low-rise with three or fewer floors.</p</li</ul

The tables can berndownloaded atrnhttp://www.census.gov/construction/chars/highlights.html</a</b