As featured in “Realtor.com®”
Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy, Realtor.com®, 29 June, 2025
Melanie French, CEO of RR Living—RREAF Holdings’ fully integrated property management company—is featured in a recent Realtor.com article titled, “The New Size of the Starter Home: How Much Home Will You Actually Buy?” In the piece, French shares her insights on how rising costs are reshaping the American dream, driving a shift in the way builders approach entry-level housing across the country.
High borrowing costs and affordability challenges continue to make the road to homeownership bumpy for many Americans.
The newly released State of the Nation’s Housing 2025 report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that homebuilders are responding to these impediments by building smaller homes.
Yes, starter homes are shrinking.
The report found that “the median size of a new single-family home declined for the third straight year in 2024, down to 2,150 square feet.” That’s down from nearly 2,500 square feet in 2013 and alarmingly close to the roughly 2,100-square-foot average seen in 2009, during the worst of times of the global financial crisis.
“Homebuilders are able to make adjustments to meet demand where it is, and what it’s showing is that there’s demand for lower-cost units,” Daniel McCue, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Housing Studies, told Fast Company. “Buyers look like they’re willing to buy slightly smaller homes to be able to afford them, given that prices have risen so high over the past three, four, five years, and interest rates remain relatively high as well.”
Melanie French, CEO of a Dallas‑based, fully integrated property management company RR Living, echoed the sentiment, saying that these cost increases are reshaping the American dream of homeownership, prompting builders to respond by reducing the size of new and starter homes.
“Builders are prioritizing density by shifting toward townhomes and build-to-rent communities to meet the demand for entry-level housing, especially in the Northeast and Western states with recognized higher living costs, such as California and Massachusetts,” she added.
As for buyers, with housing getting less affordable, they are increasingly looking for ways to save money on a home purchase, says Realtor.com® senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones.
“Home shoppers are finding creative ways to achieve homeownership, including buying smaller homes and combining forces with family and opting for multigenerational living. Though these circumstances may call for different home types, the main motivation is affordability,” she adds.
This shift in both consumer expectations and builder strategies could reshape what “starter home” means in 2025 and beyond.
We appreciate and thank Realtor.com®, especially Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy, for giving us the opportunity to speak about the latest housing market. To access the full article on Realtor.com®, please click here.
