The U.S. housing market has seen significant price growth since 2011, with the median sales price of existing single-family homes reaching a record high of 408,000 U.S. dollars in 2024. This represents a substantial increase of 133,000 over the past five years, highlighting the rapid appreciation of home values across the country. The trend of rising prices can also be observed in the new homes sold. Regional variations and housing shortage While the national median price provides a broad overview, regional differences in home prices are notable. The West remains the most expensive region, with prices twice higher than in the more affordable Midwest. This disparity persists despite efforts to increase housing supply. In 2024, approximately 982,000 building permits for single-family housing units were granted, showing a slight increase from previous years but still well below the 2005 peak of 1.68 million permits. The ongoing housing shortage continues to drive prices upward across all regions. Market dynamics and future outlook The number of existing home sales has plummeted since 2020, reflecting the growing cost of homeownership. Factors such as high home prices, unfavorable economic conditions, and aggressive increases in mortgage rates have contributed to affordability challenges for many potential homebuyers. Despite these challenges, forecasts suggest a potential recovery in the housing market by 2025, though transaction volumes are expected to remain below long-term averages.

House Price Index YoY in the United States remained unchanged at 4.80 percent in January. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United States FHFA House Price Index YoY.

In 2018, the average home size in the United States was 6,295 square feet, and the size of the average home is set to fall to 6,121 square feet by 2023.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Days on Market Year-Over-Year in the United States (MEDDAYONMARYYUS) from Jul 2017 to Feb 2025 about median and USA.

The average American household consisted of 2.51 people in 2023.

Households in the U.S.

As shown in the statistic, the number of people per household has decreased over the past decades.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines a household as follows: “a household includes all the persons who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence. A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building and which have direct access from outside the building or through a common hall. The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated persons who share living arrangements. (People not living in households are classified as living in group quarters.).”

The population of the United States has been growing steadily for decades. Since 1960, the number of households more than doubled from 53 million to over 131 million households in 2023.

Most of these households, about 34 percent, are two-person households. The distribution of U.S. households has changed over the years though. The percentage of single-person households has been on the rise since 1970 and made up the second largest proportion of households in the U.S. in 2022, at 28.88 percent.

In concordance with the rise of single-person households, the percentage of family households with own children living in the household has declined since 1970 from 56 percent to 40.26 percent in 2022.

Graph and download economic data for Real Residential Property Prices for United States (QUSR628BIS) from Q1 1970 to Q3 2024 about residential, HPI, housing, real, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

The average single-family house in the United States has overall increased in size since 2000. It reached its peak of 2,467 square feet in 2015 before falling to 2,299 square feet by 2022. Single-family house A single family home is defined as a dwelling designed to house a single family only. This means there are no common walls with other dwellings, the house has been built on its own parcel of land, and that it has its own private entry and exit to a street or thoroughfare. This definition excludes apartments, which are significantly smaller, and have actually been reducing in size over the same time period. Housing in the U.S. In 2022, there were over 85 million owner-occupied and 44 million renter occupied housing units in the United States. Single-family homes are by far the most common type of residential property purchased in the United States.

Graph and download economic data for All-Transactions House Price Index for the United States (USSTHPI) from Q1 1975 to Q4 2024 about appraisers, HPI, housing, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

The median house price in 94027, Atherton, California, was about 8.3 million U.S. dollars. This made it the most expensive zip code in the United States in 2023. 11962 Sagaponack, N.Y., was the runner-up with a median house price of about 8.1 million U.S. dollars. Of the 10 most expensive zip codes in the United States in 2026, six were in California.

Telluride, CO, was the most expensive market for luxury single-family home market in the United States in 2024. In February that year, the median sales price of a single-family home in Telluride was 6.3 million U.S. dollars. Park City, UT, Paradise Valley, AZ, and the Los Angeles Beach Cities, CA, were other locations that fetched prices over 4.3 million U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for Median Sales Price for New Houses Sold in the United States (MSPNHSUSA) from 1963 to 2024 about new, sales, median, housing, price, and USA.

The number of U.S. home sales in the United States declined in 2023, after soaring in 2021. A total of four million transactions of existing homes, including single-family, condo, and co-ops, were completed in 2023, down from 6.12 million in 2021. According to the forecast, the housing market is forecast to head for recovery in 2025, despite transaction volumes are expected to remain below the long-term average. Why have home sales declined? The housing boom during the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that being a homeowner is still an integral part of the American dream. Nevertheless, sentiment declined in the second half of 2022 and Americans across all generations agreed that the time was not right to buy a home. A combination of factors has led to house prices rocketing and making homeownership unaffordable for the average buyer. A survey among owners and renters found that the high home prices and unfavorable economic conditions were the two main barriers to making a home purchase. People who would like to purchase their own home need to save up a deposit, have a good credit score, and a steady and sufficient income to be approved for a mortgage. In 2022, mortgage rates experienced the most aggressive increase in history, making the total cost of homeownership substantially higher. Only 15 percent of U.S. renters could afford to become homeowners and in metros with highly competitive housing markets such as Los Angeles, CA, and Urban Honolulu, HI, this share was below five percent. Are U.S. home prices expected to fall? The median sales price of existing homes stood at 387,000 U.S. dollars in 2023 and was forecast to increase slightly until 2025. The development of the S&P/Case Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index shows that home prices experienced seven consecutive months of decline between June 2022 and January 2023, but this trend reversed in the following months. Despite mild fluctuations throughout the year, home prices in many metros are forecast to continue to grow, albeit at a much slower rate.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Days on Market in Florida (MEDDAYONMARFL) from Jul 2016 to Feb 2025 about FL, median, and USA.

The U.S. multifamily vacancy rate increased slightly in 2023, after reaching one of the lowest levels on record in 2022. Approximately 6.6 percent of multifamily homes were vacant in the fourth quarter of 2023. Despite the increase, this figure was notably lower than the long-term historical average. U.S. multifamily housing sector Multifamily housing, refers to a housing type where multiple apartments are contained within one housing unit, or when several buildings form a larger complex. Construction of such houses has been on the rise, as the industry struggles to meet housing demand. The average size of such a housing unit was 1,046 square feet. Popularity among investors Multifamily housing accounted for almost 15 percent of the housing stock in the United States in 2021. This type of real estate is popular among investors because it tends to generate a steady cash flow, and be easy to obtain financing for.

Housing Starts in the United States increased to 1501 Thousand units in February from 1350 Thousand units in January of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Housing Starts - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

In 2018, the average detached single-family home size in the United States was 2,587 square feet, and the size of the average home is set to reach 2,647 square feet by 2023.

Graph and download economic data for Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) for All Homes Including Single-Family Residences, Condos, and CO-OPs in the United States of America (USAUCSFRCONDOSMSAMID) from Jan 2000 to Jan 2025 about 1-unit structures, family, residential, housing, indexes, and USA.

Average Mortgage Size in the United States decreased to 397.52 Thousand USD in February 28 from 403.42 Thousand USD in the previous week. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United States Average Mortgage Size.

The average monthly rent for all apartment types in the U.S. soared in 2021 and 2022, followed by a slight decline in the next two years. In January 2025, the monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment amounting to 1,356 U.S. dollars. That was an increase from 1,136 U.S. dollars in January 2021 but a decline from the peak value of 1,427 U.S. dollars in August 2022. Where are the most expensive apartments in the U.S.? Apartment rents vary widely from state to state. To afford a two-bedroom apartment in California, for example, a renter needed to earn an average hourly wage of nearly 42 U.S. dollars, which was approximately double the average wage in North Carolina and three times as much as the average wage in Arkansas. In fact, rental costs were considerably higher than the hourly minimum wage in all U.S. states. How did rents change in different states in the U.S.? In 2024, some of the most expensive states to rent an apartment only saw a moderate increase in rental prices. Nevertheless, rents increased in most states as of January 2025. In West Virginia, the annual rental growth was the highest, at seven percent.

The primary reasons for purchasing a home in the United States in 2023 varied among home buyers. Approximately one in four homebuyers bought a home because they desired to have their own home. Having one's own home was mainly considered by millennial buyers during their home buying process.