Supersizing the American Dream

“The American Dream just keeps growing. Since 1970 the size of the average new home has ballooned by 50 percent. 'Great rooms,' Viking ranges, 10-acre lots—can moats and turrets be far behind?”

From Mother Jones (via Planetizen)

I ONCE OWNED an 1100 square foot house at 77 John Street in "Back Country" Greenwich. Originally built in the 18th century, it was sold in the 1940s to Leopold Stokowski and Gloria Vanderbilt by the first Audubon preserve in America. Stokowski renovated it himself, in peculiar ways. For example, all the double hung windows were turned on their sides, so that their would be more wall space in the low-ceilinged rooms. And the little hall outside the bathroom had a fold-out seat with a support that dropped down when you pulled the seat out: the type of space-saving built-in furniture you find in small boats. I sold it to John Badman, who tore it down and built a 5,000 square foot house.

Anyway, right down the street was a small ranch house which Life magazine had photographed in the 1940s. The owners took all their possessions out of the house and spread them out on the lawn, and Life took a picture from a crane which showed all the possessions and the house.

Twenty-five (?) years later, Life photographed the house and the residents' possessions again. Of course the house had been added on to, and the new owners had at least three times as many things as the owners in the first picture.

More from Mother Jones below.

• Since 1950, the average new house has increased by 1,247 sq. ft. Meanwhile, the average household has shrunk by 1 person.

• The National Association of Home Builders’ “showcase home” for 2005 is 5,950 sq. ft. That’s 15% bigger than last year’s model.

• The Unabomber’s legal defense team cited the size of his shack—10’ x 12’—to buttress his insanity plea.

• 1 in 4 Americans want at least a 3-car garage.

• 88% of American commuters drive to work.

• 76% of those drivers commute alone.

• The number of Americans with commutes of longer than 90 minutes each way has increased 95% since 1990.

• Since 1982, 35 million acres—an area the equivalent of New York state—have been developed.

• More than 50% of exurban lots are 10 acres or larger. Exurban homes account for 80% of residential development since 1994.

• In 1950, 1 in 100 homes had 2.5 baths or more. Today, 1 in 2 do.

• 14 million households own 4 or more TVs.

• Americans spend more to power home audio and video equipment that is “off” but still plugged in than they do to power such devices while actually in use.

• Such “energy vampires” consume 5% of the nation’s electricity.

• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition recently gave a 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 7-television house to a family of 4.

• Americans with cable TV have 30 hours of home-improvement programming available to them each day.

• Sales of Sub-Zero and other “premium” and “superpremium” refrigerators have been rising by 15% a year.

• 1 in 5 new homes is larger than 3,000 sq. ft.—the size at which it becomes unmanageable to clean without hired help.

• The average cost of a luxury kitchen remodel is $57,000. That’s $10,000 more than it costs to build a typical Habitat for Humanity home.

• Suburban and urban kids use illegal drugs, have sex, fight, and steal at the same rates, but suburban kids are more likely to drink and smoke.

• 0.03% of U.S. homes are fueled by solar energy. 0.4% lack complete plumbing facilities.

• People who live in cities use half as much energy as suburbanites.

• If Americans bought only appliances with an“Energy Star” rating over the next 15 years, the reduction in greenhouse gases would equate to taking 17 million cars off the road.

• 1/3 of a home’s heating oil is used for hot water. Multiple-head shower systems can drain a 40-gallon tank in less than 4 minutes.

• The average new home requires 13,837 board feet of lumber and 19 tons of cement.


• Since 1976, federal housing assistance has been slashed by 48%.


• Last spring, the Bush administration proposed an additional $1 billion cut to the Section 8 housing subsidy.

• 87% of homeowners are white.


• Overall, blacks receive subprime loans 2.83 times more often than whites. The disparity increases when affluent blacks are compared to affluent whites.


• If it were a state, New York City would rank 51st in energy use per capita.


• Suburban white men weigh 10 pounds more than men in cities.


• Only 2.7% of San Francisco’s teachers, 5.7% of its cops, and 4.2% of its nurses can afford to buy a home there.

• 1 in 4 Californians are considering moving out of state to reduce their housing costs.


• Rush Limbaugh’s Palm Beach estate is worth 15 times the value of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Chappaqua, N.Y., home.


• 7% of all homes are in gated communities.

• 7% of all homes are mobile homes.

• Since 2001, the number of Americans who have bought second homes has increased by 24%.