Pandemic Influencing Features in New Construction

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting features in newly built single-family homes.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, both homes with four bedrooms and homes with two-story foyers saw an uptick recently. Four-bedroom newly built homes rose from 42.6% in 2019 to 45.2% in 2020. Between 2010-2020, the share of homes with three bedrooms decreased from 51% to 45%, while the share of homes with four bedrooms jumped from 29% to 36%. Five-bedroom homes also saw an increase, rising from 6% to 9% in the same time period, while homes with two bedrooms or less dropped from 13% to 10%. The bigger the lot, the more likely a home was to have more bedrooms. In homes with less than 1,200 square feet, 83%t had two bedrooms or less, while 17% had three bedrooms. In homes with 1,200 to 1,599 square feet, 31% of all new homes had two bedrooms or less, 67% had three bedrooms, and 2% had four bedrooms.

Two-story foyers also saw a jump in 2020 data, the National Association of Home Builders also reported. According to the Census, a two-story foyer is the entranceway inside the front door of a house and has a ceiling that is at the level of the second-floor ceiling. Two-story foyers aren’t considered energy-efficient, hence a decline in popularity of the years. However, they saw a boost in popularity in new houses, with the share rising from 27% to 29% in 2020.

Finally, newly built homes with porches also saw an increase in 2020, hitting the highest percentage in a decade, reaching 65.3%. Researchers directly linked it to the pandemic, as more people spent time at home, they wanted more options for their homes. Front porches are the most popular, but side and rear porches are gaining more interest.