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Austin boasts some of the biggest homes in America, new study finds
As the old saying goes, a man’s home is his castle. And in Austin, those castles tend to be pretty big.
In a new study compiled by Lending Tree, Austin landed among the top 10 for biggest abodes. The online lending exchange surveyed the 45 largest cities in America and ranked them by median single-family house size.
To determine which cities have the largest homes, researchers pulled the latest data from Lending Tree’s property value database and broke down the findings by median home size, median home value, and price per square foot.
Coming in at No. 5, Austin homes measure a median 1,861 square feet, boast a median home value of $283,000, and measure a pricey $152 per square foot.
Proving that everything is indeed bigger in Texas, Houston took the No. 1 spot, with a median home size of 1,952 square feet, a median home value of $196,000, and an affordable cost per square foot of $100. Atlanta follows at No. 2, with Washington, D.C., at No. 3.
Dallas appears at No. 4, where the median home size is 1,862 square feet. The median value is slightly higher than Houston, at $217,000, and the cost per square foot is $117.
Still, Texas housing is considerably more affordable than elsewhere in the U.S. For some comparison (and bang-for-your-buck bragging rights), consider San Jose, California, which comes in at No. 17. The median home size there is 1,711 square feet, with a median value of $1,185,000, and cost per square foot of $693.
In analyzing the Lone Star State, the study notes that besides having a lot of space, Texas has been adding new residents at a steady pace, with the nation’s largest annual population growth between 2010 and 2016. “More new homes means larger homes,” says Lending Tree’s chief economist Tendayi Kapfidze.
The most diminutive abodes are in Detroit. The Lending Tree report adds that cities with older housing stock, such as Detroit, tend to have smaller houses.