According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average new home was 2,349 square feet in 2004, up from 1,695 square feet in 1974. During those 30 years, kitchen sizes doubled, ceilings rose more than a foot, and bedrooms grew by more than 50 square feet. But home sizes are ballooning even while our families are getting smaller: The average family had 3.1 people in 1974; it had shrunk to 2.6 people in 2004. (For the stats geeks out there, that means we’ve gone from having 547 square feet of home space per person to 903 square feet per person.)
